What happened on 15th January?

Welcome to 15th January! Explore 56 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Tonight's moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Capricorn. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this 15th January.

Thursday, 15 January falls under the zodiac sign of Capricorn, the tenth astrological sign. The moon is in its waxing gibbous phase, having passed the first quarter and progressing towards the full moon.

On this day

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese during its climb out from New York City. Captain Chesley Sullenberger made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, and all 155 people aboard survived. The incident, later known as the Miracle on the Hudson, became one of aviation's most celebrated emergency responses.

Eight years earlier, on the same date in 2001, the first edit to Wikipedia was made, marking the beginning of the world's largest free online encyclopaedia. The following decade saw another significant milestone when Australia instituted the Victoria Cross for Australia on 15 January 1991, becoming the first Commonwealth realm to establish a separate Victoria Cross award within its honours system.

DayAtlas provides weather information for this day, historical events, and notable births and deaths for any date and location, offering a comprehensive view of what happened on specific dates throughout history.

Explore everything about today 16th June.

Growth happens in darkness, long before any proof appears.

Fortune of the Day

15th January in the Stars – Star Sign Capricorn

Today, the zodiac sign Capricorn celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality People born on 15 January blend typical Capricorn ambition with understated sensuality through Venus influence. They appear reserved yet possess subtle warmth and refinement. Numerology 7 grants them reflective, spiritual depth that intrigues those around them.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths lie in discipline, practical thinking, and reliable perseverance. Weaknesses stem from emotional restraint and occasional inflexibility. Balancing duty with pleasure requires conscious effort and self-awareness.

Love In relationships, these individuals need time to open up but eventually offer profound loyalty. Venus energy brings subtle sensuality and appreciation for aesthetic, emotional nuance. They seek partners who respect and support their ambitions.

Caree & Finance Career success comes through systematic work and long-term vision. They excel in leadership, finance, or skilled trades. Financial security isn't luxury but emotional foundation for peace of mind.

Health Physical endurance is their advantage, yet stress manifests in tension and inner restlessness. Regular movement and creative outlets strengthen wellbeing. Meditation and rest practices sustainably calm their nerves.


That night, the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase.


Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 15th January

Name Days in Your Language: Deidre, Deirdre, Deja, Marten, Martin, Marty


Someone born on this day would be just 152 days old today — roughly 3,666 hours, 220,014 minutes, or 13,200,851 seconds spent on Earth so far.


It's the 15. day of the year. In 2026, 15th January falls on a Thursday.


There are 350 days still to come.


We’re currently in Week 3 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 15th January

On this day, 227 notable people were born on 15th January — spanning from 1432 to 2004. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

15/01/2004

Grace VanderWaal, American singer-songwriter

Grace Avery VanderWaal is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She is known for her distinctive voice and has often accompanied herself on the ukulele.


15/01/2002

Tim Stützle, German ice hockey player

Tim Stützle is a German professional ice hockey player who is a centre for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Rated one of the top prospects available for the 2020 NHL entry draft, he was selected third overall by the Senators. He has played for the German national team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.


15/01/2000

Triston Casas, American baseball player

Triston Ray Casas is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Red Sox selected him in the first round of the 2018 MLB draft and he made his MLB debut in 2022. Casas was a member of the United States national baseball team at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which won the silver medal.


15/01/1998

Alexandra Eade, Australian artistic gymnast

Alexandra Eade is a retired Australian artistic gymnast.


Ben Godfrey, English footballer

Benjamin Matthew Godfrey is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Danish Superliga club Brøndby, on loan from Serie A side Atalanta. He has represented England from youth to senior level.


Chloe Kelly, English footballer

Chloe Maggie Kelly is an English professional footballer who plays as a attacking midfielder for Women's Super League club Arsenal and the England national team. Kelly started her senior career at Arsenal, prior to going on loan to Everton, and joining the team permanently in 2018. With Manchester City, she is a 2019–20 FA Cup and 2021–22 League Cup winner, has twice been named in the PFA WSL Team of the Year, and was the joint top assist provider in the 2020–21 WSL season. With Arsenal, she is a 2024–25 UEFA Champions League winner.


15/01/1996

Dove Cameron, American actress and singer

Dove Olivia Cameron is an American singer and actress. She rose to fame for her dual role of the eponymous characters in Disney Channel's comedy series Liv and Maddie (2013–2017) and her leading role in the network's Descendants film franchise (2015–2021); the former won her the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming.


Deebo Samuel, American football player

Tyshun Raequan "Deebo" Samuel Sr. is an American professional football wide receiver. He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 2019 NFL draft. Samuel received first-team All-Pro honors with the 49ers in 2021 and played the 2025 season with the Washington Commanders after being traded to them. He is the only wide receiver in NFL history to have 20 receiving and 20 rushing touchdowns.


15/01/1994

Eric Dier, English footballer

Eric Jeremy Edgar Dier is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Ligue 1 club Monaco.


15/01/1993

Kadeem Allen, American basketball player

Kadeem Frank Allen is an American professional basketball player for Juvi Cremona of the Lega Serie A2. He played college basketball for Hutchinson Community College and Arizona.


15/01/1992

Joël Veltman, Dutch footballer

Joël Ivo Veltman is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a right-back or centre-back for Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion.


Joshua King, Norwegian footballer

Joshua Christian Kojo King is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a forward or left winger for Saudi club Al-Khaleej.


15/01/1991

Marc Bartra, Spanish footballer

Marc Bartra Aregall is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for La Liga club Real Betis.


Matt Duffy, American baseball player

Matthew Michael Duffy, nicknamed "Duffman", is an American professional baseball third baseman who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Texas Rangers. He played college baseball at Long Beach State.


Mitch Garver, American baseball player

Mitchell Lynn Garver is an American professional baseball catcher and designated hitter for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers. Garver made his MLB debut with the Twins in 2017 and won a Silver Slugger Award in 2019. The Twins traded him to the Rangers in 2022, and he won the 2023 World Series with them. That December, he signed with the Mariners.


Nicolai Jørgensen, Danish footballer

Nicolai Mick Jørgensen is a Danish former professional footballer who plays as a forward.


Darya Klishina, Russian long jumper

Darya Igorevna Klishina is a Russian long jumper.


James Mitchell, Australian basketball player

James Robert Mitchell is an Australian professional basketball player for the Cairns Marlins of the NBL1 North. Between 2010 and 2016, he was based in his hometown of Cairns playing for the Marlins in the QBL and the Taipans in the NBL. Between 2017 and 2019, he played three seasons for the Rockhampton Rockets in the QBL and spent a season in England with the Sheffield Sharks. In 2021, he re-joined the Marlins.


15/01/1990

Sidney Franklin, American actor and tap dancer

Sidney Franklin Buehner is an American actor, tap dancer, and film director who appeared in the series Watch Over Me (2006–2007), the film Excision (2012), a production of Legally Blonde (2025), and multiple productions at La Jolla Playhouse.


Robert Trznadel, Polish footballer

Robert Trznadel is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a right-back.


Slava Voynov, Russian ice hockey player

Vyacheslav "Slava" Leonidovich Voynov is a Russian professional ice hockey defenceman for Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He was previously suspended by the National Hockey League (NHL) resulting in the Los Angeles Kings terminating Voynov's six-year, $25 million contract in 2015 but retaining his rights. Voynov was selected by the Kings in the second round, 32nd overall, of the 2008 NHL entry draft, having won two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014.


Chris Warren, American actor

Christopher Warren Jr. is an American actor. He is best known as Zeke Baylor in the High School Musical franchise, Ty in The Fosters and Jason Parker in Grand Hotel. Since 2020 he has played Hayden in BET TV series Sistas.


15/01/1989

Alexei Cherepanov, Russian ice hockey player (died 2008)

Alexei Andreyevich Cherepanov was a Russian professional ice hockey player. He was a winger for Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Previously, Cherepanov had played for Avangard's lower-level teams, and then for the senior men's team in the Russian Super League. Cherepanov was selected in the first round of the 2007 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, although he never played professional hockey in North America. Cherepanov represented Russia in international play, and played in several tournaments at the junior level. He won a gold medal at the 2007 World Under-18 Championships. While playing at the Under-20 level, Cherepanov won silver and bronze medals in 2007 and 2008.


Nicole Ross, American Olympic foil fencer

Nicole Ross is an American foil fencer. Fencing for the Columbia Lions fencing team, she won the 2010 NCAA individual women's foil title, and was a three time All-American. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in individual women's foil, coming in 25th, while in the team event she and her teammates came in sixth. At the 2018 World Championships, she and Team USA won the gold medal in the women's team foil event.


Martin Dúbravka, Slovak footballer

Martin Dúbravka is a Slovak professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Burnley and the Slovakia national team.


15/01/1988

Daniel Caligiuri, German footballer

Daniel Caligiuri is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.


Skrillex, American DJ and producer

Sonny John Moore, known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, singer, and musician. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the post-hardcore band From First to Last. He recorded their first two studio albums with the band, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount (2004) and Heroine (2006), before leaving to pursue a solo career in 2007. He began his first tour as a solo artist in late 2007. After recruiting a new band lineup, Moore joined the Alternative Press Tour to support bands such as All Time Low and the Rocket Summer, and appeared on the cover of Alternative Press's annual "100 Bands You Need to Know" issue.


Donald Sloan, American basketball player

Donald Wayne Sloan is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Texas A&M Aggies. Sloan played parts of five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets. He played in the NBA D-League and Chinese Basketball Association in between NBA stints.


Jun. K, South Korean singer

Kim Min-jun, known professionally as Jun. K (준케이), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, dancer and actor. He is the main vocalist and leader of 2PM, and he has written and composed several of the group's songs, including "Go Crazy!", "My House", and "With Me Again". Formerly known as Kim Jun-su (Korean: 김준수), he revealed on October 17, 2012, that due to family reasons, he would be changing his name to Min-jun, though his stage name would remain the same.


15/01/1987

Greg Inglis, Australian rugby league player

Gregory Paul Inglis, also known by the nickname of "G.I.", is a retired Indigenous Australian professional rugby league footballer, who regularly played as a centre, fullback, five-eighth and wing.


Tsegaye Kebede, Ethiopian runner

Tsegaye Kebede Wordofa is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in road running events, including marathons. He quickly rose to become a prominent distance runner after his international debut at the Amsterdam Marathon in 2007. In his second year of professional running, he won the Paris Marathon, the Fukuoka Marathon and the marathon bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.


Kelly Kelly, American wrestler and model

Barbara Jean Coba, known professionally as Barbie Blank and by her ring name Kelly Kelly, is an American model and former professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, as an ambassador.


David Knight, English footballer

David Sean Knight is an English footballer who last played for Spennymoor Town as a goalkeeper.


Kelleigh Ryan, Canadian fencer

Kelleigh Ryan is a Canadian Olympic fencer.


15/01/1986

Jessy Schram, American actress and model

Jessy Schram is an American actress, model and singer. Her most notable roles include Hannah Griffith in Veronica Mars, Rachel Seybolt in Life, Karen Nadler in Falling Skies, Cinderella/Ashley Boyd in Once Upon a Time and Dr. Hannah Asher in Chicago Med.


15/01/1985

René Adler, German footballer

René Adler is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, mainly for Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg.


Kenneth Emil Petersen, Danish footballer

Kenneth Emil Petersen, also known as KEP, is a Danish football pundit and former player. He played as a centre back.


Pavel Podkolzin, Russian basketball player

Pavel Nikolaevitch Podkolzin is a Russian footballer and former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a 2.26 m tall center.


15/01/1984

Ben Shapiro, American author and commentator

Benjamin Aaron Shapiro is an American conservative political commentator, media host, attorney, and movie director. He writes columns for Creators Syndicate, Newsweek, and Ami Magazine, and is editor emeritus for The Daily Wire, which he co-founded in 2015. Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and live radio show. He was editor-at-large of Breitbart News from 2012 until his resignation in 2016. Shapiro has also authored sixteen non-fiction books.


Victor Rasuk, American actor

Victor Rasuk is an American actor.


15/01/1983

Hugo Viana, Portuguese footballer

Hugo Miguel Ferreira Gomes Viana is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He is the current director of football of Premier League club Manchester City.


Jermaine Pennant, English footballer

Jermaine Lloyd Pennant is an English retired professional footballer who played as a winger. Pennant made over 350 league appearances for 15 clubs, and scored 25 league goals.


15/01/1982

Armando Galarraga, Venezuelan baseball player

Armando Antonio Galarraga Barreto is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. Galarraga made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut with the Texas Rangers on September 15, 2007. He was traded to the Detroit Tigers at the end of the 2007 season where he spent three seasons. He then played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros. In 2010, Galarraga was one out away from a perfect game when first base umpire Jim Joyce incorrectly called the runner safe.


Francis Zé, Cameroonian footballer

Francis Zé is a Cameroonian footballer.


15/01/1981

Dylan Armstrong, Canadian shot putter and hammer thrower

Dylan Armstrong is a Canadian athletics coach and retired competitive shot putter. He is the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, a two-time World Athletics Championships medallist, a two-time Pan American Games champion, and the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion in that discipline. He was awarded his Olympic bronze medal in 2015, seven years after the event, following the doping disqualification of competitor Andrei Mikhnevich.


Vanessa Henke, German tennis player

Vanessa Henke, also known as Vanessa Paffrath, is a German former professional tennis player.


Pitbull, American rapper and producer

Armando Christian Pérez, known professionally as Pitbull, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He began his career in the early 2000s as a reggaeton, Latin hip-hop, and crunk performer, and signed with TVT Records to release his debut album, M.I.A.M.I. (2004). Executive produced by Lil Jon, the album entered the Billboard 200 along with his second and third albums, El Mariel (2006) and The Boatlift (2007). His fourth album, Pitbull Starring in Rebelution (2009), yielded his mainstream breakthrough, spawning the singles "I Know You Want Me " and "Hotel Room Service"—which peaked at numbers two and eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, respectively.


El Hadji Diouf, Senegalese footballer

El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf is a Senegalese former professional footballer who played as a winger or a forward.


15/01/1980

Matt Holliday, American baseball player

Matthew Thomas Holliday is an American former professional baseball left fielder. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals, and New York Yankees. A World Series champion in 2011 with the Cardinals, Holliday played a key role in seven postseasons, including the Rockies' first-ever World Series appearance in 2007 and Cardinals' playoff success in the 2010s. His distinctions include a National League (NL) batting championship, the 2007 NL Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award, seven All-Star selections, and four Silver Slugger Awards. Other career accomplishments include 300 home runs, more than 2,000 hits, and batting over .300 eight times.


15/01/1979

Drew Brees, American football player

Drew Christopher Brees is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. A member of the New Orleans Saints for most of his career, he is second all-time in career passing yards, career touchdown passes, and career pass completions, and third in career completion percentage. Brees also holds the record of consecutive games with a touchdown pass, with 54 games, breaking the record held by Johnny Unitas for fifty-two years. He is regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. In 2026, Brees was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a first-ballot selection.


Michalis Morfis, Cypriot footballer

Michalis Morfis is a former Cypriot former football goalkeeper who last played for Doxa Katokopias in Cypriot First Division.


Martin Petrov, Bulgarian footballer

Martin Petyov Petrov is a Bulgarian former professional footballer who played as a winger, most notably for VFL Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, and Bolton Wanderers. He also played 90 times for Bulgaria.


15/01/1978

Eddie Cahill, American actor

Edmund Patrick Cahill is an American actor known for portraying "Miracle on Ice" goalie Jim Craig in the 2004 film Miracle, and for playing the roles of Tag Jones in Friends and Detective Don Flack in CSI: NY. He has had numerous roles in television, films, and theater. His most recent starring role was in 2016 as District Attorney Conner Wallace in Conviction.


Franco Pellizotti, Italian cyclist

Franco Pellizotti is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2001 and 2018 for the Alessio, Liquigas–Doimo, Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec and Bahrain–Merida teams. Pellizotti now works as a directeur sportif for the Team Bahrain Victorious team.


Ryan Sidebottom, English cricketer

Ryan Jay Sidebottom is a former England international cricketer who played domestic cricket for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and retired in 2017, after taking more than 1,000 career wickets. He is the only player in the last 15 years to win 5 county championships and also won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 with England.


15/01/1976

Doug Gottlieb, American basketball player and sportscaster

Douglas Mitchell Gottlieb is an American men's college basketball coach, former media personality and player. Doug is the current head men's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He played NCAA collegiate basketball, twice leading the nation in assists, and professional basketball. As a sports talk radio host and analyst, he last worked for Fox Sports after tenures with the Pac-12 Network, CBS Sports, and ESPN.


Alexander Korolyuk, Russian ice hockey player

Alexander Ivanovich Korolyuk is a Russian former professional ice hockey winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the San Jose Sharks before playing the remainder of his career in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).


Iryna Lishchynska, Ukrainian runner

Iryna Lishchynska, née Nedelenko (Неделенко) is a Ukrainian middle-distance athlete who specializes in the 1500 metres.


Dorian Missick, American actor

Dorian Crossmond Missick is an American actor known for his role as Damian Henry in the television series Six Degrees (2006–2007) and for voicing Victor Vance in the 2006 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. He is also known for his starring role in the film Premium (2006) and his supporting roles in films such as The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Lucky Number Slevin (2006).


Scott Murray, Scottish rugby player

Scott Murray is a former rugby union player who played lock for Scotland. He was at one time the record caps holder for Scotland having represented them on 87 occasions, five of which as captain and playing at three Rugby World Cups. He also toured with the British & Irish Lions and won Scotland player of the season three times. He is the former head coach of the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR).


Florentin Petre, Romanian footballer and manager

Florentin Petre is a Romanian professional football manager and former player.


15/01/1975

Mary Pierce, Canadian-American tennis player and coach

Mary Caroline Pierce is a French former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 3 in singles and in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Pierce won 18 singles titles on the WTA Tour, including two majors at the 1995 Australian Open and the 2000 French Open, and five Tier I singles events. Pierce was a finalist at a further four singles majors, and twice at the Tour Finals.


Martin Štrbák, Slovak ice hockey player

Martin Štrbák is a Slovak former ice hockey defenceman, who last played for HC Košice.


15/01/1974

Séverine Deneulin, international development academic

Séverine Marie Paule Deneulin is a Belgian senior lecturer in International Development at the Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, and a fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA); she is also the HDCA's secretary with a place on the executive council.


15/01/1973

Essam El Hadary, Egyptian footballer

Essam Kamal Tawfiq El Hadary is an Egyptian goalkeeping coach and former professional football goalkeeper.


15/01/1972

Shelia Burrell, American heptathlete

Shelia Burrell is an American athletics coach and former heptathlete who is the head coach of the San Diego State Aztecs women's cross country and women's track & field teams at San Diego State University (SDSU). She was a two-time representative of the United States at the Summer Olympics, competing in 2000 and 2004.


Christos Kostis, Greek footballer

Christos Kostis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward. Kostis is widely regarded to be one of the most technical players Greece has ever produced, but his great injury in 1997 stopped his from making a big career. His nickname was "the Greek Cruyff" (Greek: "ο Έλληνας Κρόιφ").


Claudia Winkleman, English journalist and critic

Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman is an English broadcaster and writer. She co-presented the BBC One dance competition Strictly Come Dancing (2010–2025) and hosts the BBC One reality series The Traitors (2022–present), the latter of which won her a BAFTA award in 2023. She hosted the Saturday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 2020 to 2024. Winkleman was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.


15/01/1971

Regina King, American actress

Regina Rene King is an American actress, director and producer. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.


15/01/1970

Michele Granger, American softball player

Michele Marie Granger is an American, former collegiate four-time NCAA Division I First Team All-American and 1996 gold medal-winning Olympian softball pitcher. She played college softball for four seasons, over five years, for California. She won a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics with Team USA. She currently holds numerous pitching records for the Bears, and is the Pac-12 Conference career leader in perfect games, no hitters, shutouts and innings pitched, simultaneously holding the NCAA lead in no-hitters (25), along with several other top-10 career records. She is a USA Softball Hall of Fame inductee.


Shane McMahon, American wrestler and businessman

Shane Brandon McMahon is an American businessman and professional wrestler. He is best known for his various roles with WWE between 1988 and 2024.


15/01/1969

Delino DeShields, American baseball player and manager

Delino Lamont DeShields, also nicknamed "Bop", is an American former professional baseball second baseman and current baseball coach. He played for 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, and Chicago Cubs between 1990 and 2002. He is currently the manager of the minor league Harrisburg Senators, the Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.


15/01/1968

Chad Lowe, American actor, director, and producer

Charles Davis Lowe II is an American actor and director. He is the younger brother of actor Rob Lowe. He won an Emmy Award for his supporting role in Life Goes On as a young man living with HIV. He has had recurring roles on ER, Melrose Place, and Now and Again. Lowe played Deputy White House Chief of Staff Reed Pollock on the sixth season of 24, and played Byron Montgomery on Pretty Little Liars.


15/01/1967

Ted Tryba, American golfer

Ted Tryba is an American professional golfer. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.


15/01/1965

Maurizio Fondriest, Italian cyclist

Maurizio Fondriest is a retired Italian professional road racing cyclist. He won the road race at the 1988 World Cycling Championships, and the UCI Road World Cup in 1991 and 1993.


Bernard Hopkins, American boxer and coach

Bernard Hopkins Jr. is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed championship at middleweight from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal championship at light heavyweight from 2011 to 2012.


Adam Jones, American musician and songwriter

Adam Thomas Jones is an American musician, songwriter, visual artist, and music video director, best known as the guitarist of Tool. Jones has been rated the 75th-greatest guitarist of all time by the Rolling Stone and placed ninth in Guitar World's Top 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists. With experience in special effects and set design in the Hollywood film industry, Jones is also the director of the majority of Tool's music videos.


James Nesbitt, Northern Irish actor

William James Nesbitt is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical Up on the Roof to the political drama Paddywack (1994). He made his feature film debut playing talent agent Fintan O'Donnell in Hear My Song (1991). He got his breakthrough television role playing Adam Williams in the romantic comedy-drama series Cold Feet, which won him a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award.


15/01/1964

Osmo Tapio Räihälä, Finnish composer

Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä is a Finnish composer of contemporary music. He has written chamber music, vocal and electronic music, as well as several concertos and a few works for symphony orchestra.


15/01/1963

Craig Fairbrass, English actor, producer, and screenwriter

Craig John Fairbrass is an English actor, producer, and screenwriter. He has made appearances in For Queen and Country (1988), London's Burning (1990), Cliffhanger (1993), Killing Time (1998), EastEnders (1999–2001), The Great Dome Robbery (2002), The Long Weekend (2005), Rise of the Footsoldier film series (2007–present), The Bank Job (2008), House of the Rising Sun (2011), St George's Day (2012), Breakdown (2014), The Hooligan Factory (2014), Muscle (2019), Villain (2020), and the live-action One Piece TV series (2023).


15/01/1961

Serhiy N. Morozov, Ukrainian footballer and coach

Serhiy N. Morozov is a former professional footballer from Ukraine who played as a forward. He became topscorer of the Meistriliiga 1994–95 by scoring 25 goals for Lantana Marlekor. He also played as a professional in Latvia. His last club was Olimpia Yuzhnoukrainsk from Ukraine. As of 2006, Morozov was working as a youth coach at MFC Mykolaiv.


Yves Pelletier, Canadian actor and director

Yves P. Pelletier is a Canadian film director, actor, and comedian. He was part of comedy troupe Rock et Belles Oreilles from 1981 to 1995. He appeared in a number of films and on television. He made his debut as a movie director with the 2004 film Love and Magnets followed by Face Time in 2010.


15/01/1959

Greg Dowling, Australian rugby league player

Greg Ian Dowling is an Australian former politician and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative prop forward, he played his club football mostly in Brisbane with a spell playing for English club, Wigan.


Pavle Kozjek, Slovenian mountaineer and photographer (died 2008)

Pavle Kozjek was a Slovenian mountaineering pioneer and a photographer.


15/01/1958

Ken Judge, Australian footballer and coach (died 2016)

Ken Judge was an Australian rules footballer and coach.


Boris Tadić, Serbian psychologist and politician, 16th President of Serbia

Boris Tadić is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012. He led the Democratic Party (DS) from 2004 to 2012 as well, and previously served as minister of defence from 2003 to 2004.


15/01/1957

David Ige, American politician

David Yutaka Ige is an American politician and engineer who served as the eighth governor of Hawaii from 2014 to 2022. A Democrat, he served in the Hawaii State Senate from 1994 to 2014 and the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1985 to 1994.


Marty Lyons, American football player and sportscaster

Martin Anthony Lyons is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle and defensive end for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1970s and 1980s. Lyons played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide, earning consensus All-American honors. Selected in the first round of the 1979 NFL draft, he played his entire professional career for the NFL's New York Jets. He was a member of the Jets' famed "New York Sack Exchange," the team's dominant front four in 1981 and 1982 that also featured Mark Gastineau, Abdul Salaam and Joe Klecko. Following his playing career, he spent 22 years as a radio analyst for the Jets from 2002 to 2023.


Andrew Tyrie, English journalist and politician

Andrew Guy Tyrie, Baron Tyrie, is a British politician, economist and former chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (2018–2020). A former member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chichester from 1997 to 2017. Tyrie was previously a special adviser at HM Treasury and chair of the Treasury Select Committee, having taken up the role on 10 June 2010.


Mario Van Peebles, Mexican-American actor and director

Mario Cain Van Peebles is a Mexican-born American actor and director. He is the son of Melvin Van Peebles, whom he played in the 2003 biopic Baadasssss!, which he also co-wrote, produced, and directed. He also starred in Heartbreak Ridge (1986), New Jack City (1991), and USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016), the latter two of which he had directed.


15/01/1956

Vitaly Kaloyev, Russian architect

Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev is a Russian former architect and convicted murderer who was found guilty of the premeditated killing of an air traffic controller after his family died aboard BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, which collided with DHL International Aviation ME Flight 611 over Überlingen, Germany, on 1 July 2002.


Mayawati, Indian educator and politician, 23rd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh

Kumari Mayawati is an Indian politician who served as the 18th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1995 to 1995, 1997 to 1997, 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social change for Bahujans, more commonly known as Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well as religious minorities since 2003.


Marc Trestman, American football player and coach

Marc Marlyn Trestman is an American professional football coach. He led the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) to back-to-back Grey Cup victories in 2009 and 2010, and another as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2017. He was also named CFL Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2017. He has also coached in the National Football League (NFL).


15/01/1955

Nigel Benson, English author and illustrator

Nigel C. Benson is a British author and illustrator.


Andreas Gursky, German photographer

Andreas Gursky is a German artist best known for his photography. He is a former professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.


Khalid Islambouli, Egyptian lieutenant (died 1982)

Khalid al-Islambuli was an Egyptian military officer who participated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, during the annual 6th October victory parade on 6 October 1981. Al-Islambuli stated that his primary motivation for the assassination was Sadat's signing of the Camp David Accords with Israel and Sadat's plan for a more progressive Egypt. Al-Islambuli was tried before an Egyptian court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Following his execution, he was declared a martyr by many in the Islamic world, and became an inspirational symbol for Islamic movements as one of the first 'modern martyrs of Islam'.


15/01/1954

Jose Dalisay, Jr., Filipino poet, author, and screenwriter

Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. is a Filipino writer. He has won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction, and screenwriting, including 16 Palanca Awards.


15/01/1953

Randy White, American football player

Randall Lee White, nicknamed "the Manster", is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL) from 1975 to 1988. He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins from 1972 to 1974. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame (1994), the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1994) and the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame (1994).


15/01/1952

Boris Blank, Swiss singer-songwriter

Boris Blank is a Swiss artist and musician. He forms the musical duo Yello with Dieter Meier.


Andrzej Fischer, Polish footballer (died 2018)

Andrzej Lucjan Fischer was a Polish footballer who played as a goalkeeper.


Muhammad Wakkas, Bangladeshi teacher and parliamentarian (died 2021)

Muhammad Wakkas was a Bangladeshi Islamic scholar, teacher, former Member of Parliament and State Minister. He was the founder of Jamia Imdadia Madaninagar Madrasa, the largest madrasa in South Bengal, accommodating roughly 2000 students.


15/01/1951

Ernie DiGregorio, American basketball player

Ernest DiGregorio, also known as "Ernie D.", is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Buffalo Braves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Boston Celtics from 1973 to 1978.


15/01/1950

Marius Trésor, French footballer and coach

Marius Paul Trésor is a French former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation.


15/01/1949

Luis Alvarado, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (died 2001)

Luis César Alvarado Martínez was a Puerto Rican infielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). From 1968 through 1977, he played for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets and Detroit Tigers. Alvarado batted and threw right-handed.


Alasdair Liddell, English businessman (died 2012)

Alasdair Donald MacDuff Liddell was one of the architects of Britain's health strategy in the 1990s. As Director of Planning at the Department of Health (1994–2000), he led the process of setting national priorities for the National Health Service (NHS).


Ian Stewart, Scottish runner

Ian Stewart MBE is a Scottish former long-distance running athlete. Stewart was one of the world's leading distance runners between the late 1960s and mid-1970s. Stewart won the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Stewart also won the following championships: European 5,000 metres (1969), Commonwealth 5,000 metres (1970), European Indoor and World Cross Country (1975).


Howard Twitty, American golfer

Howard Allen Twitty is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour.


15/01/1948

Ronnie Van Zant, American singer-songwriter (died 1977)

Ronald Wayne Van Zant was an American singer, best known as the founding lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the older brother of Johnny Van Zant, the current lead vocalist of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Donnie Van Zant, the founder and vocalist of the rock band .38 Special.


15/01/1947

Mary Hogg, English lawyer and judge

The Honourable Dame Mary Claire Hogg, is a British lawyer and former High Court judge. She is the daughter of Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, and his wife, Mary Evelyn Martin, and is the sister of Douglas Hogg. She retired from the High Court in 2016.


Andrea Martin, American-Canadian actress, singer, and screenwriter

Andrea Louise Martin is an American and Canadian actress and comedian, best known for her work in the television series SCTV and Great News. She has appeared in films such as Black Christmas (1974) and its 2006 remake, Wag the Dog (1997), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016), Little Italy (2018) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023). Martin is also a prolific voice actress, lending her voice to many animated series and films, including Anastasia (1997), The Rugrats Movie (1998), and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001). From 2021 to 2024, she co-starred in the supernatural drama series Evil. She plays a recurring role on Only Murders in the Building as of 2021.


15/01/1946

Charles Brown, American actor (died 2004)

Charles Brown was an American actor and a member of New York City, New York, theater troupe the Negro Ensemble Company. He was best known for his performances in Off-Broadway and Broadway plays by Samm-Art Williams and August Wilson.


15/01/1945

Ko Chun-hsiung, Taiwanese actor, director, and politician (died 2015)

Ko Chun-hsiung was a Taiwanese actor, director and politician. He had been acting since the 1960s and had appeared in more than 200 films.


Vince Foster, American lawyer and political figure (died 1993)

Vincent Walker Foster Jr. was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration.


William R. Higgins, American colonel (died 1990)

William Richard Higgins was a United States Marine Corps colonel who was captured in Lebanon in 1988 while serving on a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission. He was held hostage, tortured, and, 17 months later, he was murdered by his captors.


Princess Michael of Kent

Princess Michael of Kent is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, a grandson of King George V. Marie-Christine worked as an interior designer and later became an author, publishing several books on European royalty.


David Pleat, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster

David John Pleat is an English football player turned manager, and sports commentator. Pleat made 185 Football League appearances for five clubs, scoring 26 goals. He had two spells as manager of Luton Town, and four as manager of Tottenham Hotspur.


15/01/1944

Jenny Nimmo, English author

Jenny Nimmo is a British author of children's books, including fantasy and adventure novels, chapter books, and picture books. Born in England, she has lived mostly in Wales for 40 years. She is probably best known for two series of fantasy novels: The Magician Trilogy (1986–1989), contemporary stories rooted in Welsh myth, and Children of the Red King (2002–2010), featuring schoolchildren endowed with magical powers. The Snow Spider, first of the Magician books, won the second annual Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and the 1987 Tir na n-Og Award as the year's best originally English-language book with an authentic Welsh background. The Stone Mouse was highly commended for the 1993 Carnegie Medal. Several others of hers have been shortlisted for children's book awards.


15/01/1943

George Ambrum, Australian rugby league player (died 1986)

George Ambrum (1943–1986) was a retired Australian rugby league player who used to play in the 1960s and 1970s.


Margaret Beckett, English metallurgist and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Margaret Mary Beckett, Baroness Beckett, is a British politician who was the United Kingdom's first female Foreign Secretary and a member of Parliament (MP) for more than 45 years, first from 1974 to 1979 and then from 1983 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she was and served as a minister under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Beckett was Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994, and briefly Leader of the Opposition and acting Leader of the Labour Party following John Smith's death in 1994. A member of the Labour Party, she served as MP for Lincoln from 1974 to 1979, and for Derby South from 1983 to 2024. Her 45 years in the House of Commons makes her the female MP in the Commons with the longest service overall, and she was the last sitting MP who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s.


Stuart E. Eizenstat, American lawyer and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the European Union

Stuart Elliott Eizenstat is an American diplomat and attorney. He served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. For many years, and currently he has served as a partner and Senior Counsel at the Washington, D.C.–based law firm Covington & Burling and as a senior strategist at APCO Worldwide.


Mike Marshall, American baseball player (died 2021)

Michael Grant Marshall was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1967 and from 1969 through 1981 for nine different teams. Marshall won the National League Cy Young Award in 1974 as a Los Angeles Dodger and was a two-time All-Star selection. He was the first relief pitcher to receive the Cy Young Award.


15/01/1942

Frank Joseph Polozola, American academic and judge (died 2013)

Frank Joseph Polozola was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.


15/01/1941

Captain Beefheart, American singer-songwriter, musician, and artist (died 2010)

Don Van Vliet, known by his stage name Captain Beefheart, was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as the Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock, and avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdist wordplay, and Vliet's gravelly singing voice with a wide vocal range.


15/01/1939

Per Ahlmark, Swedish journalist and politician, first Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden (died 2018)

Per Axel Ahlmark was a Swedish politician and writer. He was the leader of the Liberal People's Party from 1975 to 1978, and Minister for Employment and Deputy Prime Minister in the Swedish government from 1976 to 1978. He also served as a member of the Swedish parliament from 1967 to 1978.


Tony Bullimore, English sailor (died 2018)

Tony Bullimore was a British businessman and international yachtsman. During the 1996–97 Vendée Globe solo round-the-world yacht race, his vessel lost its keel and capsized in the Southern Ocean. He survived for four days inside the upturned hull before being located and rescued by the Australian Navy.


15/01/1938

Ashraf Aman, Pakistani engineer and mountaineer

Ashraf Aman is a Pakistani mountaineer, adventurer, and engineer. In 1977, he became the first Pakistani to reach the summit of K2. He operates the travel and tourism-based company "Adventure Tours Pakistan". He is also the vice-President of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.


Estrella Blanca, Mexican wrestler (died 2021)

Estrella Blanca was a Mexican professional wrestler. Estrella Blanca was most known for his claim to have won more Luchas de Apuestas "bet matches" than anyone, winning more masks and hair than any other wrestler. Blanca claimed to have been in 700 Luchas de Apuestas since making his wrestling debut in 1954. "Estrella Blanca" is Spanish for "White Star".


Chuni Goswami, Indian footballer and cricketer (died 2020)

Subimal "Chuni" Goswami was an Indian professional footballer and first-class cricketer. As footballer, he played as a striker or winger, captained both the Mohun Bagan club and the India national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Asian players of all time. He also served as the Sheriff of Kolkata. Goswami scored 12 goals in 37 international appearances. He was an Olympian, represented India national team at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He also led the team to achieve the gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games, and earn the runners-up position at the 1964 AFC Asian Cup.


15/01/1937

Margaret O'Brien, American actress and singer

Angela Maxine O'Brien, known professionally as Margaret O'Brien, is an American actress. Beginning a career in feature films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at age four, O'Brien became a child star and received a Juvenile Academy Award as the outstanding child actress of 1944 for her role in Meet Me in St. Louis. In her later career, she appeared on television, stage, and in supporting film roles.


15/01/1936

Richard Franklin, English actor, writer, director and political activist (died 2023)

Richard Kimber Franklin was an English actor, writer, director and political activist. Principally a stage actor, he also appeared as a regular character in several high-profile British television programmes, including Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm, and he portrayed Captain Mike Yates of UNIT in Doctor Who from 1971 until 1974, returning to the role on a number of occasions both on television and in Doctor Who spin-off media.


15/01/1935

Robert Silverberg, American author and editor

Robert Silverberg is a prolific American science fiction author and editor. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Grand Master of SF since 2004.


15/01/1934

V. S. Ramadevi, Indian civil servant and politician, 13th Governor of Karnataka (died 2013)

V. S. Ramadevi was an Indian politician who was the first lady to become the 8th Governor of Karnataka and 9th Chief Election Commissioner of India from 26 November 1990 to 11 December 1990. She was the first woman to become Chief Election Commissioner of India. She was succeeded by T. N. Seshan. Ramadevi was the first woman to serve as Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, from 1 July 1993 to 25 September 1997. She was also the first and to date, the only female Governor of Karnataka, from 2 December 1999 to 20 August 2002.


15/01/1933

Frank Bough, English journalist and radio host (died 2020)

Francis Joseph Bough was an English television presenter. He was best known as the host of BBC sports and current affairs shows including Grandstand, Nationwide and Breakfast Time, which he launched alongside Selina Scott and Nick Ross.


Ernest J. Gaines, American author and academic (died 2019)

Ernest James Gaines was an American author. Four of his works were made into television movies.


Peter Maitlis, English chemist and academic (died 2022)

Peter Michael Maitlis, FRS was a British organometallic chemist.


15/01/1932

Lou Jones, American sprinter (died 2006)

Louis Woodard Jones was an American athlete. He won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics.


15/01/1931

Lee Bontecou, American painter and sculptor (died 2022)

Lee Bontecou was an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world. She kept her work consistently in a recognizable style, and received broad recognition in the 1960s. Bontecou made abstract sculptures in the 1960s and 1970s and created vacuum-formed plastic fish, plants, and flower forms in the 1970s. Rich, organic shapes and powerful energy appear in her drawings, prints, and sculptures. Her work has been shown and collected in many major museums in the United States and in Europe.


Derek Meddings, British special effects designer (died 1995)

Derek Meddings was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and 1980s James Bond and Superman film series.


15/01/1930

Eddie Graham, American professional wrestler and promoter (died 1985)

Edward F. Gossett, better known by his ring name Eddie Graham, was an American professional wrestler, promoter, booker, and trainer.


15/01/1929

Earl Hooker, American guitarist (died 1970)

Earl Zebedee Hooker was a Chicago blues guitarist known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", he performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker and fronted his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was influenced by the modern urban styles of T-Bone Walker and Robert Nighthawk. He recorded several singles and albums as a bandleader and with other well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a slide guitar instrumental single, was popular in the Chicago area and was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters as "You Shook Me".


Martin Luther King Jr., American minister and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination, which most commonly affected African Americans.


15/01/1928

Joanne Linville, American actress (died 2021)

Joanne Linville was an American actress. She later taught at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in Los Angeles.


W. R. Mitchell, English journalist and author (died 2015)

William Reginald Mitchell was a British writer who was the editor of Dalesman magazine for twenty years and over a sixty-year period wrote over 200 books, hundreds of articles, and delivered many talks on the history and physical and natural evolution of North Britain, with particular emphasis on the Yorkshire Dales, Lancashire and the Lake District. These include the regions' biographies, social history, topography, and natural history. In the course of his career Mitchell made and collected many taped interviews with people of these regions - now housed at the Universities of Leeds and Bradford - representing a unique archive of dialect and history.


15/01/1927

Phyllis Coates, American actress (died 2023)

Phyllis Coates was an American actress with a career spanning over fifty years. She was best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men and in the first season of the television series Adventures of Superman.


15/01/1926

Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (died 2005)

Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian-Swiss actress. She was one of the leading stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.


15/01/1925

Ruth Slenczynska, American pianist and composer (died 2026)

Ruth Slenczynska was an American classical pianist and the last living piano student of Sergei Rachmaninoff. She was a child prodigy, pushed by her father, debuting with a full orchestra at age seven. She abandoned a career as a concert pianist at age 15, married at age 19 and began studies. She returned to performing in 1951 after a break of more than 10 years, and began to teach piano, from 1964 to 1987 as artist-in-residence at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her final album was released in 2022.


Ignacio López Tarso, Mexican actor (died 2023)

Ignacio López Tarso was a Mexican actor of stage, film and television. He acted in about 50 films and appeared in documentaries and in one short feature. In 1973 he was given the Ariel Award for Best Actor for Rosa Blanca, and the Ariel de Oro lifetime achievement award in 2007. He was honored multiple times at the TVyNovelas Awards. At the time of his death, along with Armando Silvestre, he was the oldest living actor and one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.


15/01/1924

George Lowe, New Zealand-English mountaineer and explorer (died 2013)

Wallace George Lowe, known as George Lowe, was a New Zealand-born mountaineer, explorer, film director and educator. He was the last surviving member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition, during which his friend Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first known people to summit the world's highest peak.


15/01/1923

Ivor Cutler, Scottish pianist, songwriter, and poet (died 2006)

Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, singer, musician, songwriter, artist and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions recorded for John Peel's influential eponymous late-night radio programme, and later for Andy Kershaw's programme. He appeared in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film in 1967, and on Neil Innes's television programmes. Cutler also wrote books for children and adults, and was a teacher at A. S. Neill's Summerhill School and for 30 years in inner-city schools in London.


Lee Teng-hui, Taiwanese economist and politician, fourth President of the Republic of China (died 2020)

Lee Teng-hui was a Taiwanese statesman, economist, and agronomist who served as the fourth president of the Republic of China and chairman of the Kuomintang from 1988 to 2000. He was the first president to be born in Taiwan, the last to be indirectly elected, and the first to be directly elected.


15/01/1922

Sylvia Lawler, English geneticist (died 1996)

Sylvia Dorothy Lawler was an English geneticist who worked in the field of human genetics.


Eric Willis, Australian sergeant and politician, 34th Premier of New South Wales (died 1999)

Sir Eric Archibald Willis was the 34th Premier of New South Wales, serving from 23 January 1976 to 14 May 1976. Born in Murwillumbah in 1922, Willis was educated at Murwillumbah High School and the University of Sydney, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts with double honours. Enlisting during World War II, Willis served on the homefront and later served in New Guinea and the Philippines. He continued to serve the Citizen Military Forces until 1958.


15/01/1921

Cliff Barker, American basketball player (died 1998)

Clifford Eugene Barker was an American basketball player who won the gold medal with the USA national basketball team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and two national championships at the University of Kentucky.


Babasaheb Bhosale, Indian lawyer and politician, eighth Chief Minister of Maharashtra (died 2007)

Babasaheb Anantrao Bhosale was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from January 1982 until February 1983.


Frank Thornton, English actor (died 2013)

Frank Thornton Ball, professionally known as Frank Thornton, was an English actor. He was best known for playing Captain Peacock in the television sitcom Are You Being Served? and its sequel Grace & Favour and as Herbert "Truly" Truelove in television sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.


15/01/1920

Bob Davies, American basketball player and coach (died 1990)

Robert Edris Davies was an American professional basketball player. Davies and Bobby Wanzer formed one of the best backcourt duos in the National Basketball Association's (NBA) early years. Davies and Wanzer led the Rochester Royals to the 1951 NBA championship. Davies was also a basketball coach at the Seton Hall University and was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 11, 1970.


Steve Gromek, American baseball player (died 2002)

Stephen Joseph Gromek was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 17 seasons in the American League with the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. In 447 career games, Gromek pitched 2,064+2⁄3 innings and posted a win–loss record of 123–108 with 92 complete games, 17 shutouts, and a 3.41 earned run average (ERA).


John O'Connor, American cardinal (died 2000)

John Joseph O'Connor was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985. O'Connor's tenure was marred by his handling of the AIDS crisis, including roles in municipal and national policy committees where he lobbied against condoms and the teaching of safer sex.


15/01/1919

Maurice Herzog, French mountaineer and politician, French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (died 2012)

Maurice André Raymond Herzog was a French mountaineer and administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the 1950 French Annapurna expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition, Annapurna.


George Cadle Price, Belizean politician, first Prime Minister of Belize (died 2011)

George Cadle Price was a Belizean statesman who served as the head of government of Belize from 1961 to 1984 and 1989 to 1993. He was the first minister and premier under British rule until independence in 1981 and was the nation's first prime minister after independence that year. He is considered one of the principal architects of Belizean independence. Today he is referred to by many as the "Father of the Nation". Price effectively dominated Belizean politics from the early 1960s until his 1996 retirement from party leadership, having been the nation's head of government under various titles for most of that period.


15/01/1918

João Figueiredo, Brazilian general and politician, 30th President of Brazil (died 1999)

João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo was a Brazilian military officer who served as the 30th president of Brazil from 1979 to 1985, and the last of the military regime that ruled the country following the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. He was chief of the Secret Service (SNI) during the term of his predecessor, Ernesto Geisel, who appointed him to the presidency at the end of his own term.


Édouard Gagnon, Canadian cardinal (died 2007)

Édouard Gagnon, PSS, OC was a Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal and President of the Pontifical Council for the Family for 7 years, from 1983 to 1990. He became a cardinal on 25 May 1985.


Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian colonel and politician, second President of Egypt (died 1970)

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 assassination attempt by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization, put President Mohamed Naguib under house arrest and assumed executive office. He was formally elected president in June 1956.


15/01/1917

K. A. Thangavelu, Indian film actor and comedian (died 1994)

Karaikal Arunachalam Thangavelu popularly known as "Danaal Thangavelu", was an Indian actor and comedian popular in the 1950s to 1970s. Not known for physical, acrobatic comedy like his contemporaries J. P. Chandrababu and Nagesh, Thangavelu's humour is recognised for his impeccable timing in verbal agility and the characteristic twang of his delivery. He exclusively acted in Tamil films.


15/01/1914

Stefan Bałuk, Polish general (died 2014)

Stefan Bałuk was a Polish general and photographer.


Hugh Trevor-Roper, English historian and academic (died 2003)

Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.


15/01/1913

Eugène Brands, Dutch painter (died 2002)

Eugène Brands was a Dutch painter, an early member of the COBRA avant-garde art movement.


Lloyd Bridges, American actor (died 1998)

Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of four children, including the actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges. He started his career as a contract performer for Columbia Pictures, appearing in films such as Sahara (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), Little Big Horn (1951) and High Noon (1952). On television, he starred in Sea Hunt (1958–1961). By the end of his career, he had re-invented himself and demonstrated a comedic talent in such parody films as Airplane! (1980), Hot Shots! (1991), and Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998). Among other honors, Bridges was a two-time Emmy Award nominee. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 1, 1994.


Miriam Hyde, Australian pianist and composer (died 2005)

Miriam Beatrice Hyde was an Australian composer, classical pianist, music educator, and poet.


Alexander Marinesko, Ukrainian-Russian lieutenant (died 1963)

Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko was a Soviet career naval officer. During the last year of World War II, he became known as the captain of the submarine S-13, which sank the German military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea in January 1945. It was evacuating soldiers, medics, and other military personnel of Army Group North, as well as civilians who wanted to flee to Germany. Around 9,300 of the more than 10,000 passengers and crew died.


15/01/1912

Michel Debré, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1996)

Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France. He served under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962. In terms of political personality, Debré was intense and immovable and had a tendency for rhetorical extremism.


15/01/1909

Jean Bugatti, German-French engineer (died 1939)

Jean Bugatti was a French automotive designer and test engineer for Bugatti. He was the son of Bugatti's founder Ettore Bugatti.


Gene Krupa, American drummer, composer, and actor (died 1973)

Eugene Bertram Krupa was an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer. Krupa is widely regarded as one of the most influential drummers in the history of popular music. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, Sing" elevated the role of the drummer from that of an accompanist to that of an important solo voice in the band.


15/01/1908

Edward Teller, Hungarian-American physicist and academic (died 2003)

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and chemical engineer who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" and one of the creators of the Teller–Ulam design inspired by Stanisław Ulam.


15/01/1907

Janusz Kusociński, Polish runner and soldier (died 1940)

Janusz Tadeusz Kusociński was a Polish athlete, winner in the 10,000 meters event at the 1932 Summer Olympics.


15/01/1905

Torin Thatcher, British actor (died 1981)

Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher was a British actor who was noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains.


15/01/1903

Paul A. Dever, American lieutenant and politician, 58th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1958)

Paul Andrew Dever was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the 58th governor of Massachusetts and was its youngest-ever attorney general. Among his notable accomplishments was the construction of Boston’s circumferential highway Route 128, then called "Dever’s Folley," which was later expanded to Interstate 95, one of the most used national highways.


15/01/1902

Nâzım Hikmet, Greek-Turkish author, poet, and playwright (died 1963)

Mehmed Nâzım Ran, commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet, was a Turkish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. He was acclaimed for the "lyrical flow of his statements". Described as a "romantic communist" and a "romantic revolutionary", he was repeatedly arrested for his political beliefs and spent much of his adult life in prison or in exile. His poetry has been translated into more than 50 languages.


Saud of Saudi Arabia (died 1969)

Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 until his abdication on 2 November 1964. During his reign, he served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 1953 to 1954 and from 1960 to 1962. Prior to his accession, Saud was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 11 May 1933 to 9 November 1953. He was the second son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia.


15/01/1896

Marjorie Bennett, Australian-American actress (died 1982)

Marjorie Bennett was an Australian actress who worked mainly in the United States. She began her acting career during the silent film era.


15/01/1895

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1973)

Artturi Ilmari Virtanen was a Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research and inventions in agricultural and nutrition chemistry, especially for his fodder preservation method".


15/01/1893

Rex Ingram, Irish film director, producer, writer, and actor (died 1950)

Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer, and actor. Director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director".


Ivor Novello, Welsh singer-songwriter and actor (died 1951)

Ivor Novello was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century.


15/01/1891

Ray Chapman, American baseball player (died 1920)

Raymond Johnson Chapman was an American baseball player. He spent his entire career as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians of the American League.


15/01/1890

Michiaki Kamada, Japanese admiral (died 1947)

Michiaki Kamada was a vice-admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy who saw service in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.


15/01/1885

Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician and author (died 1973)

Lorenz Böhler was an Austrian physician and surgeon.


Grover Lowdermilk, American baseball player (died 1968)

Grover Cleveland "Slim" Lowdermilk was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox between 1909 and 1920. Lowdermilk batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Sandborn, Indiana.


15/01/1882

Henry Burr, Canadian singer, radio performer, and producer (died 1941)

Henry Burr was a Canadian singer, radio performer and producer. He was born Harry Haley McClaskey and used Henry Burr as one of his many pseudonyms, in addition to Irving Gillette, Henry Gillette, Alfred Alexander, Robert Rice, Carl Ely, Harry Barr, Frank Knapp, Al King, and Shamus McClaskey. He produced more than 12,000 recordings, by his own estimate, and some of his most popular recordings included "Just a Baby's Prayer at Twilight", "Till We Meet Again" with Albert Campbell, "Beautiful Ohio", "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" "When I Lost You" and "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree". A tenor, he performed as a soloist and in duets, trios and quartets.


Princess Margaret of Connaught (died 1920)

Princess Margaret of Connaught was Crown Princess of Sweden as the first wife of the future King Gustaf VI Adolf. Known in Sweden as Margareta, she was the elder daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia. Her marriage produced five children.


15/01/1879

Mazo de la Roche, Canadian author and playwright (died 1961)

Mazo de la Roche was a Canadian writer who wrote the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.


Ernest Thesiger, English actor (died 1961)

Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger was an English stage and film actor. He is noted for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).


15/01/1878

Johanna Müller-Hermann, Austrian composer (died 1941)

Johanna Müller-Hermann was an Austrian composer and pedagogue.


15/01/1877

Lewis Terman, American psychologist, eugenicist, and academic (died 1956)

Lewis Madison Terman was an American psychologist, academic, and proponent of eugenics. He was noted as a pioneer in educational psychology in the early 20th century at the Stanford School of Education. Terman is best known for his revision of the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales and for initiating the longitudinal study of children with high IQs called the Genetic Studies of Genius. As a prominent eugenicist, he was a member of the Human Betterment Foundation, the American Eugenics Society, and the Eugenics Research Association, believing in genetic racial associations with intelligence. Terman also served as president of the American Psychological Association. A Review of General Psychology survey published in 2002 ranked Terman as the 72nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, in a tie with G. Stanley Hall.


15/01/1875

Thomas Burke, American sprinter, coach, and journalist (died 1929)

Thomas Edmund Burke was an American sprinter. He was the first Olympic champion in the 100 and 400 meter sprint races.


15/01/1872

Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian author and translator (died 1944)

Arsen Kotsoyev was one of the founders of Ossetic prose, who had a large influence on the formation of the modern Ossetic language and its functional styles. He participated in all of the first Ossetic periodicals, and was one of the most notable Ossetian publicists.


15/01/1870

Pierre S. du Pont, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1954)

Pierre Samuel du Pont was an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family.


15/01/1869

Ruby Laffoon, American lawyer and politician, 43rd Governor of Kentucky (died 1941)

Ruby Laffoon was an American attorney and politician who served as the 43rd governor of Kentucky from 1931 to 1935. A Kentucky native, at age 17, Laffoon moved to Washington, D.C., to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk Laffoon. He developed an interest in politics and returned to Kentucky, where he compiled a mixed record of victories and defeats in elections at the county and state levels. In 1931, he was chosen as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee by a nominating convention, not a primary, making him the only Kentucky gubernatorial candidate to be chosen by a convention after 1903. In the general election, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was then the largest margin of victory in Kentucky gubernatorial history.


Stanisław Wyspiański, Polish poet, playwright, and painter (died 1907)

Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański was a Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artistic premises of the Young Poland movement.


15/01/1866

Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, historian, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931)

Lars Olof Jonathan Söderblom was a Swedish bishop. He was the Church of Sweden Archbishop of Uppsala from 1914 to 1931, and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 12 July.


15/01/1863

Wilhelm Marx, German lawyer and politician, 17th Chancellor of Germany (died 1946)

Wilhelm Marx was a German judge, lawyer, and politician who twice served as chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928. He also briefly held the position of Minister-President of Prussia in 1925. A leading figure in the Centre Party, he served as its chairman from 1922 to 1928. With a total tenure of three years and 73 days, he was the longest-serving chancellor of the Weimar Republic.


15/01/1859

Archibald Peake, English-Australian politician, 25th Premier of South Australia (died 1920)

Archibald Henry Peake was an Australian politician. He was Premier of South Australia on three occasions: from 1909 to 1910 for the Liberal and Democratic Union, and from 1912 to 1915 and 1917 to 1920 for its successor, the Liberal Union. He had also been Treasurer and Attorney-General in the Price-Peake coalition government from 1905 to 1909.


15/01/1858

Giovanni Segantini, Italian painter (died 1899)

Giovanni Giovanni Battista Emanuele Maria Segantini was an Austrian-born stateless painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century, and his paintings were collected by major museums. In later life, he combined a Divisionist painting style with Symbolist images of nature. He was active first in Italy then in Switzerland during the last period of his life.


15/01/1855

Jacques Damala, Greek-French soldier and actor (died 1889)

Aristides Damalas, known in France by the stage name Jacques Damala, was a Greek military officer-turned-actor, and husband of Sarah Bernhardt in his last years. Damala's characterisation by modern researchers is far from positive. His handsomeness was as notable as his insolence and Don Juan quality. Writer Fredy Germanos describes him as an opportunistic and hedonistic person, whose marriage to the great diva would inevitably intensify and maximise his vices, namely, his vanity and obsession with women, alcohol, and drugs.


15/01/1850

Leonard Darwin, English soldier, eugenicist, and politician (died 1943)

Leonard Darwin was an English politician, economist and eugenicist. He was a son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and also a mentor to Ronald Fisher, a statistician and evolutionary biologist.


Mihai Eminescu, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (died 1889)

Mihai Eminescu was a Romanian Romantic poet, novelist, and journalist from Moldavia, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul, the official newspaper of the Conservative Party (1880–1918). His poetry was first published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna, Austria to study when he was 19. The poet's manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, were offered by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on 25 January 1902. Notable works include Luceafărul, Odă în metru antic, and the five Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems, he frequently used metaphysical, mythological and historical subjects.


Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian-Swedish mathematician and physicist (died 1891)

Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer of equality for women in mathematics. Kovalevskaya was the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, in the modern sense of that term, the first woman in Europe in modern times appointed to a full professorship in mathematics, as well as one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. According to historian of science Ann Hibner Koblitz, Kovalevskaya was "the greatest known woman scientist before the twentieth century".


15/01/1842

Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and psychiatrist (died 1925)

Josef Breuer was an Austrian physician who made discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work during the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., led to the development of the "cathartic method" for psychiatric disorders. The method was a major initiatory factor for psychoanalysis, as developed by Breuer's friend and collaborator Sigmund Freud.


Mary MacKillop, Australian nun and saint, co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (died 1909)

Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ was an Australian religious sister. She was born in Melbourne but is best known for her activities in South Australia. Together with Fr Julian Tenison-Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor.


15/01/1841

Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, English captain and politician, sixth Governor General of Canada (died 1908)

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, known as Lord Stanley of Preston from 1886 to 1893, was a British Conservative politician and military officer who served as Colonial Secretary from 1885 to 1886 and Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. An avid sportsman, he built Stanley House Stables in England and presented Canada with the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy in ice hockey. He was also one of the original inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame.


15/01/1840

Jo Abbott, American judge, politician and Confederate army officer (died 1908)

Joseph B. "Jo" Abbott was a lawyer, judge, Confederate Army officer, member of the Texas House of Representatives and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas.


15/01/1834

Samuel Arza Davenport, American lawyer and politician (died 1911)

Samuel Arza Davenport was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.


15/01/1815

William Bickerton, English-American religious leader, third President of the Church of Jesus Christ (died 1905)

William Bickerton was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1862, Bickerton became the founding president of the church now known as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), which is one of many churches that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith Jr in 1830.


15/01/1809

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French economist and politician (died 1865)

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to call himself an anarchist, and is widely regarded as one of anarchism's most influential theorists. Proudhon became a member of the French Parliament after the Revolution of 1848, whereafter he referred to himself as a federalist. Proudhon described the liberty he pursued as the synthesis of community and individualism. Some consider his mutualism to be part of individualist anarchism while others regard it to be part of social anarchism.


15/01/1803

Marjorie Fleming, Scottish poet and author (died 1811)

Marjorie Fleming was a Scottish child writer and poet. She gained appreciation from Robert Louis Stevenson, Leslie Stephen, and possibly Walter Scott.


15/01/1795

Alexander Griboyedov, Russian playwright, composer, and poet (died 1829)

Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov was a Russian diplomat, playwright, poet, and composer. His one notable work is the 1823 verse comedy Woe from Wit. He was Russia's ambassador to Qajar Persia, where he and all the embassy staff were massacred by an angry mob in the aftermath of the ratification of the Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828), which confirmed the cession to Russia of Persia's northern territories comprising Transcaucasia and parts of the North Caucasus. Griboyedov played a pivotal role in the ratification of the treaty. The immediate cause for the incident was Griboyedov giving refuge to Armenians who had escaped from the harems of the Persian shah and his son.


15/01/1791

Franz Grillparzer, Austrian author, poet, and playwright (died 1872)

Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also wrote the oration for his longtime friend Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral, as well as the epitaph for his friend Franz Schubert.


15/01/1754

Richard Martin, Irish activist and politician, co-founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (died 1834)

Colonel Richard Martin, was an Irish politician and campaigner against cruelty to animals. He was known as Humanity Dick, a nickname bestowed on him by King George IV. He succeeded in getting the pioneering Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822, nicknamed 'Martin's Act', passed into British law.


15/01/1747

John Aikin, English surgeon and author (died 1822)

John Aikin was an English medical doctor and surgeon. Later in life he devoted himself wholly to biography and writing in periodicals.


15/01/1716

Philip Livingston, American merchant and politician (died 1778)

Philip Livingston was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and slave trader from New York City. He represented New York at the October 1774 First Continental Congress, where he favored imposing economic sanctions upon Great Britain as a way of pressuring the British Parliament to repeal the Intolerable Acts. Livingston was also a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778, and signed the Declaration of Independence.


15/01/1671

Abraham de la Pryme, English archaeologist and historian (died 1704)

Abraham de la Pryme was an English antiquary.


15/01/1623

Algernon Sidney, British philosopher (probable) (died 1683)

Algernon Sidney or Sydney was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of England, he opposed the king's execution. Sidney was later charged with plotting against Charles II, in part based on his most famous work, Discourses Concerning Government, which was used by the prosecution as a witness at his trial. He was executed for treason. After his death, Sidney was revered as a "Whig patriot—hero and martyr".


15/01/1622

Molière, French actor and playwright (died 1673)

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".


15/01/1595

Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, English politician (died 1661)

Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth, KB, known as Sir Henry Carey between 1616 and 1626 and as Lord Leppington between 1626 and 1639, was an English nobleman and translator.


15/01/1538

Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (died 1599)

Maeda Toshiie was one of the leading generals of Oda Nobunaga following the Sengoku period of the 16th century extending to the Azuchi–Momoyama period. His preferred weapon was a yari, and Matazaemon (又左衛門) was his common name; he was therefore known as Yari no Mataza (槍の又左). He was a member of the so-called Echizen Sanninshu along with Sassa Narimasa and Fuwa Mitsuharu. The highest rank from the court that he received is the Great Counselor Dainagon.


15/01/1481

Ashikaga Yoshizumi, Japanese shōgun (died 1511)[citation needed]

Ashikaga Yoshizumi was the 11th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1494 to 1508 during the Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of Ashikaga Masatomo and grandson of the sixth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori. His childhood name was Seikō (清晃), Yoshizumi was first called Yoshitō, then Yoshitaka.


15/01/1462

Edzard I, Count of East Frisia, German noble (died 1528)

Edzard I, also Edzard the Great was count of East Frisia from 1491 until his death in 1528.


15/01/1432

Afonso V of Portugal (died 1481)

Afonso V, also known as the African, was King of Portugal from 1438 until he died in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. The son of Edward, King of Portugal, and Eleanor of Aragon, Afonso acceded to the throne when he was only six years old. His early reign was marked by a struggle over the regency between his mother, Eleanor, and his uncle, Pedro, Duke of Coimbra. Pedro was appointed sole regent in 1439, but the Braganza faction at court continued to challenge his authority. Influenced by his other uncle, Afonso I, Duke of Braganza, the King dismissed Pedro in 1448 and defeated him in the Battle of Alfarrobeira in 1449.


Lives Remembered on 15th January

On 15th January, 125 remarkable people passed away — from 69 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

15/01/2025

Paul Danan, English actor and television personality (born 1978)

Paul Louis Danan was an English actor and television personality, known for playing the role of Sol Patrick in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, between 1997 and 2001. In 2005, he appeared as a contestant on the first series of ITV's Celebrity Love Island and returned for the second series in 2006. He was also a housemate on the twentieth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.


David Lynch, American television and film director, visual artist and musician, complications from emphysema (born 1946)

David Keith Lynch was an American filmmaker, producer, actor, painter, and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, with his films often characterized by a distinctive surrealist sensibility that gave rise to the adjective "Lynchian". He is often credited with bringing surrealism and experimentalism to mainstream media in the late 20th century. In a career spanning more than five decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, a Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, two César Awards, and a (posthumous) Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and nine Primetime Emmy Awards.


Melba Montgomery, American country music singer-songwriter (born 1938)

Melba Joyce Montgomery was an American country music singer and songwriter. She was known for a series of duet recordings made with George Jones, Gene Pitney, and Charlie Louvin. She was also a solo artist, having reached the top of the country charts in 1974 with the song, "No Charge". Born in Tennessee but raised in Alabama, Montgomery had a musical upbringing. Along with her two brothers, she placed in a talent contest which brought her to the attention of Roy Acuff. For several years, she toured the country as part of his band until she signed with United Artists Records in 1963.


Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress (born 1959)

Linda Mary Monica Hudson was an Irish singer, actress, and television personality.


15/01/2022

Alexa McDonough, first female politician to lead a major provincial political party in Canada, former leader of the federal New Democratic Party. (born 1944)

Alexa Ann McDonough was a Canadian politician who was the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Canada, at any level, when she was the leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party (NSNDP) from 1980 to 1994. Subsequently, she served as leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1995 to 2003.


15/01/2020

Rocky Johnson, Canadian professional wrestler (born 1944)

Rocky Johnson was a Canadian professional wrestler. Among many National Wrestling Alliance titles, he was the first Black NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion as well as the NWA Television Champion. He won the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1983, along with his partner Tony Atlas, to become the first black tag team champions in WWE history. He was the father of actor and wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the grandfather of wrestler Simone "Ava" Johnson.


Lloyd Cowan, British athlete and coach (born 1962)

Lloyd Cowan was a British track and field athlete and coach.


15/01/2019

Carol Channing, American actress (born 1921)

Carol Elaine Channing was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer who starred in Broadway and film musicals. Each of her characters typically possessed a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice.


Ida Kleijnen, Dutch chef (born 1936)

Ida Kleijnen was a Dutch Michelin-starred chef.


15/01/2018

Dolores O'Riordan, Irish pop singer (born 1971)

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan was an Irish musician who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band the Cranberries. O'Riordan was the principal songwriter of the band and also played acoustic and electric guitars. She became one of the most recognisable voices in alternative rock and was known for her lilting mezzo-soprano voice, signature yodel, use of keening, and strong Limerick accent.


15/01/2017

Jimmy Snuka, Fijian professional wrestler (born 1943)

James Reiher Snuka was a Fijian and American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka.


15/01/2016

Francisco X. Alarcón, American poet and educator (born 1954)

Francisco Xavier Alarcón was an American Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the United States. His poems have been also translated into Irish and Swedish. He made many guest appearances at public schools so that he could help inspire and influence young people to write their own poetry especially because he felt that children are "natural poets."


Ken Judge, Australian footballer and coach (born 1958)

Ken Judge was an Australian rules footballer and coach.


Manuel Velázquez, Spanish footballer (born 1943)

Manuel Velázquez Villaverde was a Spanish footballer who played as a central midfielder.


15/01/2015

Ervin Drake, American songwriter and composer (born 1919)

Ervin Drake was an American songwriter whose works include such American Songbook standards as "I Believe" and "It Was a Very Good Year". He wrote in a variety of styles and his work has been recorded by musicians around the world. In 1983, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.


Kim Fowley, American singer-songwriter, producer, and manager (born 1939)

Kim Vincent Fowley was an American record producer, songwriter, and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been described as "one of the most colorful characters in the annals of rock & roll", as well as "a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream".


Ray Nagel, American football player and coach (born 1927)

Raymond Robert Nagel was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.455). After coaching, Nagel was the athletic director at Washington State University from 1971 to 1976 and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1976 to 1983. From 1990 to 1995, he was the executive director of the Hula Bowl, a college football invitational all-star game in Hawaii.


15/01/2014

Curtis Bray, American football player and coach (born 1970)

Curtis Sidney Bray was an American football coach. He was a coach for Duquesne University, Western Kentucky University, Villanova University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Iowa State University.


John Dobson, Chinese-American astronomer and author (born 1915)

John Lowry Dobson was an American amateur astronomer and is best known for the Dobsonian telescope, a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflector telescope. He was also known for his efforts to promote awareness of astronomy through public lectures including his performances of "sidewalk astronomy". Dobson was also the co-founder of the amateur astronomical group, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers.


Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (born 1944)

Roger Anthony Lloyd Pack was a British actor. He is best known for playing Trigger in Only Fools and Horses from 1981 to 2003, and Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley from 1994 to 2007. He later starred as Tom in The Old Guys with Clive Swift. He is also well known for the role of Bartemius Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and for his appearances in Doctor Who as John Lumic in the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel".


15/01/2013

Nagisa Oshima, Japanese director and screenwriter (born 1932)

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director, writer, and left-wing activist who is best known for his fiction films, of which he directed 23 features in a career spanning from 1959 to 1999. He is regarded as one of the greatest Japanese directors of all time, and as one of the most important figures of the Japanese New Wave, alongside Shōhei Imamura. His film style was bold, innovative and provocative. Common themes in his work include youthful rebellion, class and racial discrimination and taboo sexuality.


John Thomas, American high jumper (born 1941)

John Curtis Thomas was an American track and field athlete who set several world records in the high jump using the straddle technique. As a youth, he earned the Eagle Scout award. At the age of 17, while a freshman at Boston University, Thomas became the first man to clear 7 feet (2.1 m) indoors. He subsequently pushed the world indoor record to 7 ft 1+1⁄2 in (2.172 m), and broke the world outdoor record three times, with a career best jump of 7 ft 3+3⁄4 in (2.229 m) in 1960, at the age of 19.


15/01/2012

Ed Derwinski, American soldier and politician, first United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (born 1926)

Edward Joseph Derwinski was an American politician who served as the first Cabinet-level United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, serving under President George H. W. Bush from March 15, 1989 to September 26, 1992. He previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1983, representing south and southwest suburbs of Chicago.


Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish lawyer and politician, third President of the Xunta of Galicia (born 1922)

Manuel Fraga Iribarne was a Spanish professor and politician during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, and one of the founders of the People's Alliance. Fraga was the Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1975, Minister of the Interior in 1975, Second Deputy Prime Minister between 1975 and 1976.


Carlo Fruttero, Italian journalist and author (born 1926)

Carlo Fruttero was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies.


Samuel Jaskilka, American general (born 1919)

Samuel Jaskilka was a U.S. Marine four-star general whose last assignment was Assistant Commandant of the United States Marine Corps (1975–1978). General Jaskilka was a highly decorated veteran of the Korean War, having led the landing at Inchon as a company commander with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1978 after 36 years of service.


Ib Spang Olsen, Danish author and illustrator (born 1921)

Ib Spang Olsen was a Danish writer and illustrator best known to generations of Danes for cartoons and illustrations, many of which appeared in children's publications. Those include a series of nursery rhyme books written by Halfdan Rasmussen, including "Halfdans ABC".


Hulett C. Smith, American lieutenant and politician, 27th Governor of West Virginia (born 1918)

Hulett Carlson Smith was an American politician who served as the 27th governor of West Virginia from 1965 to 1969.


15/01/2011

Nat Lofthouse, English footballer and manager (born 1925)

Nathaniel Lofthouse was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. He won 33 caps for England between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals, with one of the highest goals-per-game ratios of any England player.


Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, French soldier, race car driver, and businessman (born 1908)

Pierre Louis-Dreyfus was a French Resistance fighter during World War II who later was CEO of the Louis Dreyfus Cie.


Susannah York, English actress and activist (born 1939)

Susannah Yolande Fletcher, known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including Tom Jones (1963) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), formed the basis of her international reputation. An obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging sixties", who later "proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range."


15/01/2009

Lincoln Verduga Loor, Ecuadorian journalist and politician (born 1917)

Lincoln Savonarola Verduga Loor was an Ecuadorian journalist and politician known for a long career in public service in his country.


15/01/2008

Robert V. Bruce, American historian, author, and academic (born 1923)

Robert Vance Bruce was an American historian specializing in the American Civil War, who won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876 (1987). After serving in the Army during World War II, Bruce graduated from the University of New Hampshire, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He received his Master of Arts in history and his Doctor of Philosophy from Boston University, where he was later a professor. He also taught at the University of Bridgeport, Lawrence Academy at Groton, and the University of Wisconsin. Bruce was also a lecturer at the Fortenbaugh Lecture at Gettysburg College.


Brad Renfro, American actor (born 1982)

Brad Barron Renfro was an American actor. He made his film debut at age 11 with a starring role in The Client (1994). Renfro went on to appear in 21 feature films, winning several awards.


15/01/2007

Awad Hamed al-Bandar, Iraqi lawyer and judge (born 1945)

Awad Hamad al-Bandar (Arabic: عواد حمد البندر السعدون, romanized: ʿAwād Ḥamad al-Bandar al-Saʿdūn; was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on 8 July 1982.


Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Iraqi intelligence officer (born 1951)

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, also known as Barzan Hassan, was an Iraqi politician, diplomat and intelligence officer. He was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein and served as the leader of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat).


James Hillier, Canadian-American computer scientist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope (born 1915)

James Hillier, was a Canadian-American scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938.


Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino educator and diplomat (born 1905)

Pura Santillan-Castrence was a Filipino writer and diplomat. Of Filipino women writers, she was among the first to gain prominence writing in the English language. She was named a Chevalier de Légion d'honneur by the French government.


Bo Yibo, Chinese commander and politician, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1908)

Bo Yibo (Chinese: 薄一波; pinyin: Bó Yībō; Wade–Giles: Po2 I1-po1; 17 February 1908 – 15 January 2007) was one of the most senior political figures in China during the 1980s and 1990s.


15/01/2006

Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler (born 1926)

Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, also known as Jaber III, was the Emir of Kuwait from 31 December 1977 until his death in 2006. The 13th ruler in his family's dynasty, Jaber's reign oversaw the transition of a relatively traditional society into a modernized state. He also led Kuwait through the Gulf War, defeating Ba'athist Iraq and Saddam Hussein with the support of the United States.


15/01/2005

Victoria de los Ángeles, Spanish soprano and actress (born 1923)

Victoria de los Ángeles López García was a Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s.


Walter Ernsting, German author (born 1920)

Walter Ernsting was a German science fiction and fantasy author who mainly published under the pseudonym Clark Darlton. He grew up in Koblenz and was drafted into the German Wehrmacht shortly after the beginning of World War II. He served in an intelligence unit in Norway and on the Eastern Front, where he was captured and spent several years as a prisoner of war in Siberia.


Elizabeth Janeway, American author and critic (born 1913)

Elizabeth Janeway was an American author and critic.


Ruth Warrick, American actress (born 1916)

Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005. She made her film debut in Citizen Kane, and years later celebrated her 80th birthday by attending a special screening of the film.


15/01/2004

Olivia Goldsmith, American author (born 1949)

Olivia Goldsmith was an American author, known for her first novel The First Wives Club (1992), which was adapted into the 1996 film of the same name.


15/01/2003

Doris Fisher, American singer-songwriter (born 1915)

Doris Fisher was an American singer and songwriter, collaborating both as lyricist and composer. She co-wrote many popular songs in the 1940s, including "Whispering Grass", "You Always Hurt the One You Love", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", "That Ole Devil Called Love", and "Put the Blame on Mame." Her songs were recorded by the Ink Spots, Louis Prima, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Pearl Bailey, the Mills Brothers and Ella Fitzgerald amongst others.


15/01/2002

Michael Anthony Bilandic, American politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (born 1923)

Michael Anthony Bilandic was an American Democratic politician, judge, and attorney who served as the 49th mayor of Chicago from 1976 to 1979, after the death of his predecessor, Richard J. Daley. Bilandic practiced law in Chicago for several years, having graduated from the DePaul University College of Law. Bilandic served as an alderman in Chicago City Council, representing the eleventh ward on the south-west side from June 1969 until he began his tenure as mayor in December 1976. After his mayoralty, Bilandic served on the Illinois Appellate Court from 1984 until being elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990. He served on the state supreme court until 2000, and was the court’s chief Justice from 1994 to 1997.


Eugène Brands, Dutch painter (born 1913)

Eugène Brands was a Dutch painter, an early member of the COBRA avant-garde art movement.


Jeanne Voltz, American food journalist and cookbook writer (born 1920)

Jeanne Voltz was an American food journalist, editor, and cookbook author. She was food editor for the Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times, two of the most influential food sections in the country during her tenure in the 1950s and 1960s. She won three James Beard awards for her cookbooks.


15/01/2001

Leo Marks, English cryptographer, playwright, and screenwriter (born 1920)

Leopold Samuel Marks was an English writer, screenwriter, and cryptographer. During the Second World War he headed the codes office supporting resistance agents in occupied Europe for the secret Special Operations Executive organisation. After the war, Marks became a playwright and screenwriter, writing scripts that frequently utilised his war-time cryptographic experiences. He wrote the script for Peeping Tom, the controversial film directed by Michael Powell that had a disastrous effect on Powell's career, but was later described by Martin Scorsese as a masterpiece. In 1998, towards the end of his life, Marks published a personal history of his experiences during the war, Between Silk and Cyanide, which was critical of the leadership of SOE.


15/01/2000

Georges-Henri Lévesque, Canadian-Dominican priest and sociologist (born 1903)

Georges-Henri Lévesque was a Canadian Dominican priest and sociologist and a liberal figure during the conservative Duplessis era in Quebec.


15/01/1999

Betty Box, English film producer (born 1915)

Betty Evelyn Box was a British film producer, usually credited as Betty E. Box.


15/01/1998

Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian economist and politician, Prime Minister of India (born 1898)

Gulzarilal Nanda was an Indian politician and economist who specialised in labour issues. He served as the acting Prime Minister of India for two 13-day tenures following the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966 respectively. Both his terms ended after the ruling Indian National Congress's parliamentary party elected a new prime minister. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1997.


Junior Wells, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (born 1934)

Junior Wells was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song "Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues, described by the critic Bill Dahl as "one of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s". Wells himself categorized his music as rhythm and blues.


15/01/1996

Les Baxter, American pianist and composer (born 1922)

Leslie Thompson Baxter was an American composer, conductor, and musician. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica, and scored over 250 radio, television and motion pictures numbers.


Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (born 1938)

Moshoeshoe II, previously known as Constantine Bereng Seeiso, was the Paramount Chief of Basutoland, succeeding paramount chief Seeiso from 1960 until the country gained full independence from Britain in 1966. He was King of Lesotho from 1966 until his exile in 1990, and from 1995 until his death in 1996.


15/01/1994

Georges Cziffra, Hungarian-French pianist and composer (born 1921)

Christian Georges Cziffra was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Among his teachers was Ernő Dohnányi, a pupil of István Thoman, who was a favourite pupil of Franz Liszt.


Harry Nilsson, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

Harry Edward Nilsson III, sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer and songwriter known for his versatile tenor range, pioneering use of vocal overdubbing, explorations of the Great American Songbook, and Caribbean fusion sounds. He was one of the few major pop-rock artists to achieve significant commercial success without touring or performing large-scale public concerts.


Harilal Upadhyay, Indian author, poet, and astrologist (born 1916)

Harilal Upadhyay was a Gujarati novelist and poet. He wrote more than 100 books.


15/01/1993

Sammy Cahn, American songwriter (born 1913)

Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".


15/01/1990

Gordon Jackson, Scottish-English actor (born 1923)

Gordon Cameron Jackson was a Scottish actor. He is best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Capt Jimmy Cairns in Tunes of Glory, and Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.


Peggy van Praagh, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (born 1910)

Dame Margaret van Praagh was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher, repetiteur, producer, advocate and director, who spent much of her later career in Australia.


15/01/1988

Seán MacBride, Irish republican activist and politician, Minister for External Affairs, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904)

Seán MacBride was an Irish Republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.


15/01/1987

Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (born 1904)

Raymond Wallace Bolger was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian, and stage performer who started his movie career in the silent-film era. Bolger was a major Broadway performer in the 1930s and beyond. He is best known for his roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) as Hunk and the Scarecrow and in Walt Disney's holiday musical fantasy Babes in Toyland in 1961 as the villainous Barnaby.


15/01/1984

Fazıl Küçük, Cypriot journalist and politician (born 1906)

Fazıl Küçük was a Turkish Cypriot politician and a medical doctor who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus.


15/01/1983

Armin Öpik, Estonian-Australian paleontologist and geologist (born 1898)

Armin Aleksander Öpik was an Estonian paleontologist who spent the second half of his career at the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Australia.


Shepperd Strudwick, American actor (born 1907)

Shepperd Strudwick was an American actor of film, television, and stage. He was also billed as John Shepperd for some of his films and for his acting on stage in New York.


15/01/1982

Red Smith, American journalist (born 1905)

Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was an American sportswriter. Smith’s journalistic career spanned over five decades and his work influenced an entire generation of writers. In 1976, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Author David Halberstam called Smith "the greatest sportswriter of two eras."


15/01/1981

Graham Whitehead, English race car driver (born 1922)

Alfred Graham Whitehead was a British racing driver from England. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 19 July 1952. He finished 12th, scoring no championship points. He also competed in several non-Championship Formula One races. He began racing his half-brother Peter's ERA, in 1951 and then drove his Formula Two Alta in the 1952 British Grand Prix. He finished second at 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans only weeks before the accident on the Tour de France in which Peter was killed. Graham escaped serious injury and later raced again with an Aston Martin and Ferrari 250GT before stopping at the end of 1961.


15/01/1974

Harold D. Cooley, American lawyer and politician (born 1897)

Harold Dunbar Cooley was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the Fourth Congressional district of North Carolina from 1934 to 1966.


15/01/1973

Coleman Francis, American actor, director, and producer (born 1919)

Coleman Chambers Francis was an American actor, writer, producer and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), The Skydivers (1963) and Red Zone Cuba (1966), all three of which were filmed in the general vicinity of Santa Clarita, California.


Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1901)

Ivan Georgiyevich Petrovsky was a Soviet mathematician working mainly in the field of partial differential equations. He greatly contributed to the solution of Hilbert's 19th and 16th problems, and discovered what are now called Petrovsky lacunas. He also worked on the theories of boundary value problems, probability, and on the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces.


15/01/1972

Daisy Ashford, English author (born 1881)

Margaret Mary Julia Devlin, known as Daisy Ashford, was an English writer who is most famous for writing The Young Visiters, a novella concerning the upper class society of late-19th-century England, when she was nine years old. The novella was published in 1919, preserving her juvenile spelling and punctuation. She wrote the title as "Viseters" in her manuscript, but it was published as "Visiters".


15/01/1970

Frank Clement, English race car driver (born 1886)

Frank Charles Clement was a British racing driver who, along with Canadian John Duff, won the 1924 24 Hours of Le Mans.


William T. Piper, American engineer and businessman, founded Piper Aircraft (born 1881)

William Thomas Piper Sr. was an American aviation and oil industry businessman. He was the founding president of the Piper Aircraft Corporation and led the company from 1929 until his death in 1970. He graduated from Harvard University in 1903 and later became known as "the Henry Ford of aviation".


15/01/1968

Bill Masterton, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1938)

William John Masterton was a Canadian–American professional ice hockey player who was a centre in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Minnesota North Stars in 1967–68. He is the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game. He died following a hit during a January 13, 1968, contest against the Oakland Seals. Years later, an analysis by The Toronto Star found his brain was already severely damaged from an earlier untreated concussion, and that the January 1968 hit triggered massive head trauma that ultimately killed him.


15/01/1967

David Burliuk, Ukrainian author and illustrator (born 1882)

David Davidovich Burliuk was a Russian poet, artist and publicist of Ukrainian origin associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as "the father of Russian Futurism."


15/01/1964

Jack Teagarden, American singer-songwriter and trombonist (born 1905)

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden was an American jazz trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played in Louis Armstrong's All-Stars.


15/01/1962

Yos Sudarso, Indonesian naval officer (born 1925)

Yosaphat "Yos" Sudarso was an Indonesian naval officer killed at the Battle of Arafura Sea. At the time of his death, Yos Sudarso was deputy chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy and in charge of an action to infiltrate Dutch New Guinea. He was promoted to vice admiral posthumously.


15/01/1959

Regina Margareten, Hungarian businesswoman (born 1863)

Regina Margareten was a Hungarian-American entrepreneur, who became known as the "Matzoh Queen" of New York City. She immigrated to the United States in 1883, where the family set up a business which grew into kosher food manufacturers Horowitz Brothers and Margareten Company. She was profiled several times by The New York Times, and continued to attend to the business until two weeks prior to her death.


15/01/1955

Yves Tanguy, French-American painter (born 1900)

Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy, known as just Yves Tanguy, was a French Surrealist painter, known for his abstract landscapes.


15/01/1952

Ned Hanlon, Australian sergeant and politician, 26th Premier of Queensland (born 1887)

Edward Michael Hanlon, nicknamed the "Digger Premier", was an Australian politician and soldier, who was Premier of Queensland from 1946 until his death in 1952.


15/01/1951

Ernest Swinton, British Army officer (born 1868)

Major-General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, was a British Army officer who played a part in the development and adoption of the tank during the First World War. He was also a war correspondent and author of several short stories on military themes. He is credited, along with fellow officer Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Dally Jones, with having initiated the use of the word "tank" as a code-name for the first British, tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.


Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian captain and sailor (born 1887)

Nikolai Vekšin was a Russian and Estonian sailor and helmsman of the bronze-medallist Estonian team at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games.


15/01/1950

Henry H. Arnold, American general (born 1886)

Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), commanding general of the United States Army Air Forces, the only United States Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only officer to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services. Arnold was also the founder of Project RAND, which evolved into one of the world's largest non-profit global policy think tanks, the RAND Corporation, and was one of the founders of Pan American World Airways.


15/01/1948

Josephus Daniels, American publisher and diplomat, 41st United States Secretary of the Navy (born 1862)

Josephus Daniels was a newspaper editor, Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson, and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.


15/01/1945

Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian-German mathematician and theorist (born 1865)

Wilhelm Wirtinger was an Austrian mathematician, working in complex analysis, geometry, algebra, number theory, Lie groups, and knot theory.


15/01/1939

Kullervo Manner, Finnish Speaker of the Parliament, the Prime Minister of the FSWR and the Supreme Commander of the Red Guards (born 1880)

Kullervo Achilles Manner was a Finnish and Soviet politician. He was one of the leaders of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic.


15/01/1937

Anton Holban, Romanian author, theoretician, and educator (born 1902)

Anton Holban was a Romanian novelist. He was the nephew of Eugen Lovinescu.


15/01/1936

Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster, English cricketer and politician, seventh Governor-General of Australia (born 1866)

Henry William Forster, 1st Baron Forster, was a British politician and first-class cricketer who served as the seventh Governor-General of Australia from 1920 to 1925. He was previously a government minister under Arthur Balfour, Herbert Asquith, and David Lloyd George.


15/01/1929

George Cope, American painter (born 1855)

George Cope was an American painter who specialized in landscapes and still lifes. His works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brandywine River Museum of Art.


15/01/1926

Enrico Toselli, Italian pianist and composer (born 1883)

Enrico Toselli, Count of Montignoso, was an Italian pianist and composer. Born in Florence, he studied piano with Giovanni Sgambati and composition with Giuseppe Martucci and Reginaldo Grazzini. He embarked on a career as a concert pianist, playing in Italy, European capital cities, Alexandria and North America.


15/01/1919

Karl Liebknecht, German politician (born 1871)

Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht was a German socialist politician and revolutionary. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both the Spartacus League and Communist Party of Germany (KPD) along with Rosa Luxemburg.


Rosa Luxemburg, German economist, theorist, and philosopher (born 1871)

Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary. She was a leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and later co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League, which evolved into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). An influential member of the international socialist movement, she is remembered for her writings on imperialism and revolution, and as a champion of socialist democracy.


15/01/1916

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian playwright and translator (born 1850)

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.


15/01/1909

Arnold Janssen, German priest and missionary (born 1837)

Arnold Janssen, was a German-Dutch Catholic priest and missionary who is venerated as a saint. He founded the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary religious congregation, also known as the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two congregations for women. In 1889 he founded in Steyl, Netherlands, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and in 1896 at the same place the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. He was canonized on 5 October 2003, by Pope John Paul II.


15/01/1905

George Thorn, Australian politician, sixth Premier of Queensland (born 1838)

George Henry Thorn (junior) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly and a Premier of Queensland, Australia.


15/01/1896

Mathew Brady, American photographer and journalist (born 1822)

Mathew B. Brady was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the American Civil War. He studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York City in 1844, and went on to photograph U.S. presidents John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Millard Fillmore, Martin Van Buren, and other public figures.


15/01/1893

Fanny Kemble, English actress (born 1809)

Frances Anne Kemble was an English actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing, and works about the theatre. She lived for many years in the United States, primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lenox, Massachusetts.


15/01/1880

Carl Georg von Wächter, German jurist (born 1797)

Carl Joseph Georg Sigismund Wächter, from 1835 von Wächter, was a leading German jurist in the 19th century. For a brief period he served as president of the Oberappellationsgericht der vier Freien Städte.


15/01/1876

Eliza McCardle Johnson, American wife of Andrew Johnson, 18th First Lady of the United States (born 1810)

Eliza McCardle Johnson was the first lady of the United States from 1865 to 1869 as the wife of President Andrew Johnson. She also served as the second lady of the United States from March until April 1865 when her husband was vice president. Johnson was relatively inactive as first lady, and she stayed out of public attention for the duration of her husband's presidency. She was the youngest first lady to wed, doing so at the age of 16.


15/01/1866

Massimo d'Azeglio, Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist and painter (born 1798)

Massimo Taparelli, Marquess of Azeglio, commonly called Massimo d'Azeglio, was a Piedmontese-Italian statesman, novelist, and painter. He was Prime Minister of Sardinia for almost three years until succeeded by his rival Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. A moderate liberal and member of the Moderate Party associated with the Historical Right, d'Azeglio hoped for a federal union between Italian states.


15/01/1864

Isaac Nathan, English-Australian composer and journalist (born 1792)

Isaac Nathan was an Anglo-Jewish emigre Australian musician, composer, musicologist, and music educator, who has been called the "father of Australian music", having assisted the careers of numerous colonial musicians during his twenty-year residence in Australia. He is best known for the success of his Hebrew Melodies (1815–1840) in London. However, he made significant contributions as a singing teacher and music historian and as a composer of opera in the Royal Theatres (1823–1833). After emigrating to Australia in 1840, Nathan wrote Australia's first operas and Australia's first contemporary song cycle which entangled fragments of Aboriginal songlines with European musical traditions. Nathan tailored compositions to the unique individual singing needs of his students and community choirs while using the Neapolitan bel canto pedagogical tradition that he inherited in London. Nathan's students include Dame Marie Carandini.


15/01/1855

Henri Braconnot, French chemist and pharmacist (born 1780)

Henri Braconnot was a French chemist and pharmacist.


15/01/1854

Jiang Zhongyuan, Chinese scholar and soldier (born 1812)

Jiang Zhongyuan, courtesy name Changrui, (常孺) was a scholar and soldier from Hunan who fought for the Qing and against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion.


15/01/1815

Emma, Lady Hamilton, English-French mistress of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (born 1761)

Emma, Lady Hamilton, was an English model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy men, culminating in the naval hero Lord Nelson, and was the favourite model and muse of the portraitist George Romney.


15/01/1813

Anton Bernolák, Slovak linguist and priest (born 1762)

Anton Bernolák was a Slovak linguist and Catholic priest, and the author of the first Slovak language standard.


15/01/1804

Dru Drury, English entomologist and author (born 1725)

Dru Drury was a British collector of natural history specimens and an entomologist. He received specimens collected from across the world through a network of ship's officers and collectors including Henry Smeathman. His collections were used by many entomologists of his time to describe and name new species and he is best known for his book Illustrations of Natural History which includes the names and descriptions of many insects, published in parts from 1770 to 1782 with most of the copperplate engravings done by Moses Harris.


15/01/1790

John Landen, English mathematician and theorist (born 1719)

John Landen was an English mathematician.


15/01/1783

Lord Stirling, American Revolutionary War Major General (born 1726)

Major General William Alexander, also known as Lord Stirling was a Continental Army officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. He held a claim to be the male heir to the Scottish title of Earl of Stirling through Scottish lineage, and he sought the title sometime after 1756. His claim was initially granted by a Scottish court in 1759; however, the House of Lords ultimately overruled the court and denied the title in 1762. He continued to hold himself out as "Lord Stirling" regardless.


15/01/1775

Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Italian organist and composer (born 1700)

Giovanni Battista Sammartini was an Italian composer, violinist, organist, choirmaster and teacher. He counted Gluck among his students, and was highly regarded by younger composers including Johann Christian Bach. It has also been noted that many stylizations in Joseph Haydn's compositions are similar to those of Sammartini, although Haydn denied any such influence. Sammartini is especially associated with the formation of the concert symphony through both the shift from a brief opera-overture style and the introduction of a new seriousness and use of thematic development that prefigure Haydn and Mozart. Some of his works are described as galant, a style associated with Enlightenment ideals, while "the prevailing impression left by Sammartini's work... [is that] he contributed greatly to the development of a Classical style that achieved its moment of greatest clarity precisely when his long, active life was approaching its end".


15/01/1683

Philip Warwick, English politician (born 1609)

Sir Philip Warwick, English writer and politician, born in Westminster, was the son of Thomas Warwick, or Warrick, a musician.


15/01/1672

John Cosin, English bishop and academic (born 1594)

John Cosin was an English bishop.


15/01/1623

Paolo Sarpi, Italian lawyer, historian, and scholar (born 1552)

Paolo Sarpi, O.S.M. was an Italian Servite friar and Catholic priest who was a notable historian, scientist, canon lawyer, polymath, and statesman active on behalf of the Venetian Republic during the period of its successful defiance of the papal interdict (1605–1607) and its war (1615–1617) with Austria over the Uskok pirates. His writings, frankly polemical and highly critical of the Catholic Church and its Scholastic tradition, "inspired both Hobbes and Edward Gibbon in their own historical debunkings of priestcraft." Sarpi's major work, the History of the Council of Trent (1619), was published in London in 1619; other works: a History of Ecclesiastical Benefices, History of the Interdict and his Supplement to the History of the Uskoks, appeared posthumously. Organized around single topics, they are early examples of the genre of the historical monograph.


15/01/1584

Martha Leijonhufvud, Swedish noblewoman (born 1520)

Martha Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud, known as Kung Märta, was a politically active Swedish noblewoman. She was the sister of Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud and sister-in-law of King Gustav I of Sweden: she was also the maternal aunt of Queen Catherine Stenbock and the daughter-in-law of the regent Christina Gyllenstierna. In 1568, she financed the deposition of King Eric XIV of Sweden, which placed her nephew John III of Sweden on the throne.


15/01/1569

Catherine Carey, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England (born 1524)

Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin. She was the daughter of Mary Boleyn, sister to queen consort Anne Boleyn.


15/01/1568

Nicolaus Olahus, Romanian archbishop (born 1493)

Nicolaus Olahus ; 10 January 1493 – 15 January 1568) was the Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary, and a distinguished Catholic prelate, humanist and historiographer.


15/01/1477

Adriana of Nassau-Siegen, German countess (born 1449)

Countess Adriana of Nassau-Siegen, German: Adriana Gräfin von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Gräfin zu Nassau, Vianden und Diez, Frau zu Breda, was a countess from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, and through marriage Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg.


15/01/1149

Berengaria of Barcelona, queen consort of Castile (born 1116)

Berengaria of Barcelona, called in Spanish Berenguela de Barcelona and also known as Berengaria of Provence, was Queen consort of Castile, León and Galicia. She was the daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, and Douce I, Countess of Provence.


15/01/0950

Wang Jingchong, Chinese general

Wang Jingchong was an official and general of China's Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Shu dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the reign of Emperor Yin of Later Han, Wang Jingchong, fearing defamation by the official Hou Yi (侯益), rebelled against the Later Han dynasty in conjunction with Li Shouzhen and Zhao Siwan (趙思綰), and submitted to the Later Shu dynasty. After repeated defeats, however, he committed suicide.


15/01/0936

Rudolph of France (born 880)

Rudolph, sometimes called Ralph, was the king of West Francia (France) from 923 until his death in 936. He was elected to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, and spent much of his reign defending his realm from Viking raids.


15/01/0849

Theophylact, Byzantine emperor (born 793)

Theophylact or Theophylaktos was the eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Michael I Rangabe and grandson, on his mother's side, of Nikephoros I. He was junior co-emperor alongside his father for the duration of the latter's reign, and was tonsured, castrated, and exiled to Plate Island after his overthrow, under the monastic name Eustratius.


15/01/0570

Íte of Killeedy, Irish nun and saint (born 475)

Íte ingen Chinn Fhalad, also known as Íde, Ita, Ida or Ides, was an early Irish nun and patron saint of Killeedy. She was known as the "foster mother of the saints of Erin". The name "Ita" was conferred on her because of her saintly qualities. Her feast day is 15 January.


15/01/0378

Chak Tok Ich'aak I, Mayan ruler

Chak Tok Ichʼaak I also known as Great Paw, Great Jaguar Paw, and Toh Chak Ichʼak was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He took the throne on 7 August 360 and reigned until his death in 378, apparently at the hands of invaders from central Mexico.


15/01/0069

Galba, Roman emperor (born 3 BC)

AD 69 (LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the consulship of Galba and Vinius. The denomination AD 69 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.


Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 15th January

Arbor Day (Egypt)

Arbor Day is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.


Armed Forces Remembrance Day (Nigeria)

The Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration (AFRDC) is observed on 15 January in Nigeria. It serves to honour veterans of the First and Second World War and Nigerian Civil War as well as to commemorate the servicemen of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Being a former British colony, Remembrance Day was formerly celebrated on 11 November as Poppy Day in honor of the end of the First World War. Upon the government victory, against Biafran troops on 15 January 1970, "the day, the instrument of surrender was handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo by Philip Effiong of the Biafran army", hence, the holiday was moved off the calendar of the Commonwealth of Nations and was changed to 15 January in commemoration of the conclusion of the Nigerian Civil War that sought to tear apart the unity of Nigeria.


Army Day (India)

Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year in India, in recognition of Lieutenant General Kodandera M. Cariappa's taking over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Francis Roy Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India, on 15 January 1949. The day is celebrated in the form of parades and other military shows in the national capital New Delhi as well as in all headquarters. On 15 January 2023, India celebrated its 75th Indian Army Day in Bengaluru. Army Day marks a day to salute the valiant soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect the country and its citizens.


Christian feast day: Abeluzius (Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church)

Abeluzius is a saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. He is commemorated with a feast day of January 15. Little else is known of the person. It has been speculated that the name may be a typographical error for "Abba Lucius", a Syro-Roman name.


Christian feast day: Arnold Janssen

Arnold Janssen, was a German-Dutch Catholic priest and missionary who is venerated as a saint. He founded the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary religious congregation, also known as the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two congregations for women. In 1889 he founded in Steyl, Netherlands, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and in 1896 at the same place the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. He was canonized on 5 October 2003, by Pope John Paul II.


Christian feast day: Francis Ferdinand de Capillas (one of Martyr Saints of China)

Francis Fernández de Capillas was a Spanish Dominican friar who went as a missionary to Asia. He died in China as a martyr. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000, as one of the 120 Martyrs of China.


Christian feast day: Ita

Íte ingen Chinn Fhalad, also known as Íde, Ita, Ida or Ides, was an early Irish nun and patron saint of Killeedy. She was known as the "foster mother of the saints of Erin". The name "Ita" was conferred on her because of her saintly qualities. Her feast day is 15 January.


Christian feast day: Our Lady of the Poor

Our Lady of Banneux, or Our Lady of the Poor, is the Catholic title given to the eight apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Mariette Beco, an adolescent girl living in Banneux, Liège Province, Belgium, between 15 January and 2 March 1933. Beco told her family and parish priest of seeing a Lady in white who declared herself to be the "Virgin of the Poor", saying "I come to relieve suffering" and "Believe in me and I will believe in you".


Christian feast day: Macarius of Egypt (Western Christianity)

Macarius of Egypt was an Egyptian Christian monk and grazer hermit. He is also known as Macarius the Elder or Macarius the Great.


Christian feast day: Maurus and Placidus (Order of Saint Benedict)

Maurus, OSB (512–584) was an Italian Catholic monk best known as the first disciple of Benedict of Nursia. He is mentioned in Gregory the Great's biography of the latter as the first oblate, offered to the monastery by his noble Roman parents as a young boy to be brought up in the monastic life.


Christian feast day: Paul the Hermit

Paul of Thebes, commonly known as Paul the First Hermit or Paul the Anchorite, was an Egyptian saint regarded as the first Christian hermit and grazer, who was claimed to have lived alone in the desert of Thebes in Roman Egypt from the age of 16 to the age of 113 years old. He was canonized in 491 by Pope Gelasius I, and is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Oriental Orthodox Churches.


Christian feast day: January 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

January 14 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 16


John Chilembwe Day (Malawi)

This is a list of public holidays in Malawi.


Korean Alphabet Day (North Korea)

Hangul Day, called Hangeul Day (Korean: 한글날) in South Korea, and Chosŏn'gŭl Day (Korean: 조선글날) in North Korea, is a holiday celebrating the creation or promulgation of the native Korean alphabet, also called Hangul. The holiday is observed on October 9 in South Korea and January 15 in North Korea.


Ocean Duty Day (Indonesia)

The following table indicates declared Indonesian government national holidays. Cultural variants also provide opportunity for holidays tied to local events. Beside official holidays, there are the so-called "libur bersama" or "cuti bersama", or joint leave(s) declared nationwide by the government. In total there are 20 public holidays every year.


Teacher's Day (Venezuela)

The table below shows a list of the most notable holidays in Venezuela. Popular and public holidays are included in the list.


What Happened on 15th January?

56 significant events took place on Saturday, 15th January — stretching from 69 to 2023. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

15/01/2023

Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashes near Pokhara International Airport, killing all 72 people on board.

Yeti Airlines Flight 691 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight flown by Yeti Airlines from Kathmandu to Pokhara in Nepal. On 15 January 2023, the ATR 72 being operated on the route stalled and crashed while landing at Pokhara, killing all 68 passengers and 4 crew members on board. The investigation revealed that Captain Kamal KC had accidentally feathered the engines, causing a loss of thrust.


15/01/2022

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano erupts, cutting off communications with Tonga and causing a tsunami across the Pacific.

In December 2021, an eruption began on Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, a submarine volcano in the Tongan archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean. The eruption reached a very large and powerful climax nearly four weeks later, on 15 January 2022. Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai is 65 kilometres (40 mi) north of Tongatapu, the country's main island, and is part of the highly active Tonga–Kermadec Islands volcanic arc, a subduction zone extending from New Zealand to Fiji. On the Volcanic Explosivity Index scale, the eruption was rated at least a VEI-5. Described by scientists as a "magma hammer", the volcano at its height produced a series of four underwater thrusts, displaced 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi) of rock, ash and sediment, and generated the largest atmospheric explosion recorded by modern instrumentation.


15/01/2021

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia's Sulawesi island killing at least 105 and injuring 3,369 people.

A moment magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Majene Regency in West Sulawesi, Indonesia, on 15 January 2021, at 02:28 WITA. The reverse faulting shock initiated at 18.0 km (11.2 mi) depth with an epicenter inland, located 32 km (20 mi) south of Mamuju. It was preceded by a Mw 5.7 foreshock several hours prior. Shaking from the mainshock was assigned a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong) in Majene and Mamuju. Four of the five regencies in West Sulawesi were affected. More than 6,000 structures were damaged or destroyed; damage was estimated at Rp829.1 billion rupiah. At least 105 people were confirmed dead; nearly 6,500 were injured and thousands were displaced.


15/01/2020

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirms the first case of COVID-19 in Japan.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is a cabinet-level ministry of the Japanese government. It is commonly known as Kōrō-shō (厚労省) in Japan. The ministry provides services on health, labour and welfare.


15/01/2019

Somali militants attack the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya killing at least 21 people and injuring 19.

Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. Stretching across the Horn of Africa, it borders Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the east. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland. Somalia has an estimated population of more than 18 million, of which 2.7 million live in the capital and largest city, Mogadishu. As one of Africa's most ethnically homogenous countries, around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis. The official and national language of the country is Somali while Arabic is recognised as a second language. The overwhelming majority of the population are Sunni Muslims.


Theresa May's UK government suffers the biggest government defeat in modern times, when 432 MPs voting against the proposed European Union withdrawal agreement, giving her opponents a majority of 230.

Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead from 1997 to 2024, and has been a member of the House of Lords since August 2024. May was the second female British prime minister, after Margaret Thatcher, and the first woman to have held two of the Great Offices of State. May is a one-nation conservative.


15/01/2018

British multinational construction and facilities management services company Carillion goes into liquidation – officially, "the largest ever trading liquidation in the UK".

Construction is the process involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the asset is built and ready for use. Construction also covers repairs and maintenance work, any work to expand, extend, and improve the asset, and its eventual demolition, dismantling, or decommissioning.


15/01/2016

The Kenyan Army suffers its worst defeat ever in a battle with Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents in El-Adde, Somalia. An estimated 150 Kenyan soldiers are killed in the battle.

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) are the armed forces of the Republic of Kenya. They are made up of the Kenya Army, Kenya Navy, and Kenya Air Force. The current KDF was established, and its composition stipulated, in Article 241 of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya; it is governed by the KDF Act of 2012. Its main mission is the defence and protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kenya, recruitment to the KDF is done on yearly basis. The President of Kenya is the commander-in-chief of the KDF, and the Chief of Defence Forces is the highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military adviser to the President of Kenya.


15/01/2015

The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the Swiss franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets.

The Swiss National Bank is the central bank of Switzerland, responsible for the nation's monetary policy and the sole issuer of Swiss franc banknotes. The primary goal of its mandate is to ensure price stability, while taking economic developments into consideration.


15/01/2013

A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.

The Badrashin railway accident took place near Badrashin station in Giza, Egypt, on 15 January 2013. A train en route to Cairo from Sohag derailed, leaving at least 19 people dead and 120 injured.


15/01/2009

US Airways Flight 1549 ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take-off. This becomes known as "The Miracle on the Hudson" as all 155 people on board were rescued.

US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States, that ditched onto the Hudson River shortly after takeoff on January 15, 2009, due to a double engine failure caused by a bird strike. The Airbus A320 operating the flight, registered N106US, struck a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, resulting in a dual engine failure. Given their position in relation to the available airports and their low altitude, pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the aircraft into a water landing on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan, doing so without significant damage to the aircraft. All 155 people on board survived and were rescued by nearby boats, although 100 people were injured, 5 seriously. The time from the bird strike to the ditching was less than four minutes.


15/01/2005

ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

The European Space Agency is a 23-member international organisation devoted to space exploration. It has its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 3,000 people globally as of 2025. ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European integration. Its 2026 annual budget was around €8.3 billion.


15/01/2001

Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, is launched (Wikipedia Day).

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, Wikipedia has been hosted since 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American nonprofit organization funded mainly by donations from readers. Wikipedia is the largest and most read reference work in history.


15/01/1991

The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

The United Nations (UN) is a global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations on 26 June 1945 with the articulated mission of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals.


Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system.

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years, 214 days, is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.


15/01/1981

Pope John Paul II receives a delegation from the Polish trade union Solidarity at the Vatican led by Lech Wałęsa.

Pope John Paul II was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century, as well as the third-longest-serving pope in history, after St. Peter and Pius IX. In addition to this, he was an important philosopher and theologian of the 20th century.


15/01/1977

Linjeflyg Flight 618 crashes in Kälvesta near Stockholm Bromma Airport in Stockholm, Sweden, killing 22 people.

Linjeflyg Flight 618 was a crash of a Vickers 838 Viscount during approach to Stockholm Bromma Airport at 09:05 on 15 January 1977. All twenty-two people on board the aircraft perished when it hit ground at Kälvesta in Stockholm, Sweden. The domestic service from Malmö via Kristianstad, Växjö and Jönköping was operated by Skyline on behalf of Linjeflyg as part of the latter's domestic scheduled services. The accident was caused by atmospheric icing on the horizontal stabilizer. Low power on two of the engines had caused reduced function of the ice protection system, causing a buildup of ice. The icing caused the loss of pitch control and the aircraft entered a steep dive. Among the deceased was table tennis player Hans Alsér.


15/01/1976

Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974, after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.


15/01/1975

The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.

The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975 in Alvor, Portugal, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November and formally ended the 13-year-long Angolan War of Independence.


15/01/1973

Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.


15/01/1970

Nigerian Civil War: Biafran rebels surrender following an unsuccessful 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, Nigeria-Biafra War, or Biafra War, was an armed conflict fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state that had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. During the war years, Field Marshal Gowon served as the head of state of Nigeria, while Biafra was led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu. The conflict emerged from political, ethnic, cultural, and religious tensions that preceded the United Kingdom's formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and anti-Igbo pogroms in the Northern Region. As a consequence of these pogroms, alongside the mass exodus of surviving Igbos from the Northern Region to the Igbo homelands in the Eastern Region, the leadership of the Eastern Region concluded that the Nigerian federal government was either unwilling or unable to guarantee them an adequate protection, therefore, the only remaining solution seemed to be to secure their compatriots' security by establishing a sovereign and independent country of Biafra.


Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician, and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his overthrow by Libyan rebel forces in 2011 during the First Libyan Civil War. He came to power through a bloodless military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, Secretary General of the General People's Congress from 1977 to 1979, and then the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1979 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.


15/01/1969

The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It was the world's third-most populous country, the largest by area, and bordered twelve countries. A diverse multinational state, it was organized as a federal union of national republics, with the largest and most populous being the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). In practice, its government and economy were highly centralized. As a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, it was the flagship communist state. Its capital and largest city was Moscow.


15/01/1967

The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

The Super Bowl is the annual league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 replacing the NFL Championship Game and also served as the final game of every American Football League season from 1966 to 1967 prior to the AFL–NFL merger replacing the AFL championship game. Since 2022, the game has been played on the second Sunday in February. Prior Super Bowls were played on Sundays in early to mid-January from 1967 to 1978, late January from 1979 to 2003, and the first Sunday of February from 2004 to 2021. Winning teams are awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the coach who won the first two Super Bowls. Because the NFL restricts the use of its "Super Bowl" trademark, it is frequently referred to as the "big game" or other generic terms by non-sponsoring corporations. The day the game is held is commonly referred to as "Super Bowl Sunday" or "Super Sunday".


15/01/1966

The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'état.

The First Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 governed by the first republican constitution. The country's government was based on a federal form of the Westminster system. The period between 1 October 1960, when the country gained its independence, and 15 January 1966, when the first military coup d’état took place, is also generally referred to as the First Republic. The first Republic of Nigeria was ruled by different leaders representing their regions as premiers in a federation during this period.


15/01/1962

The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.

The Derveni papyrus is an Ancient Greek papyrus roll that was discovered in 1962 at the archaeological site of Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia. A philosophical treatise, the text is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras. The roll dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. The poem itself was originally composed near the end of the 5th century BC, and "in the fields of Greek religion, the sophistic movement, early philosophy, and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century." While interim editions and translations were published over the subsequent years, the manuscript in its entirety was first published in 2006.


Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.

Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. It contained what are now Indonesia's six easternmost provinces, Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua, which were administered as a single province prior to 2003 under the name Irian Jaya, and now comprise the Papua region of the country.


15/01/1949

Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist government.

The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their near-complete control over mainland China on 10 December 1949.


15/01/1947

The Black Dahlia murder: The dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short is found in Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Short, posthumously known as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized owing to the gruesome nature of the crime, which included the mutilation and bisection of her corpse.


15/01/1943

World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.


The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington County, Virginia.

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase The Pentagon is often used as a metonym for the Department of Defense and its leadership.


15/01/1937

Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republicans both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.


15/01/1936

The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

O-I Glass, Inc. is an American company that specializes in container glass products. It is the largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.


15/01/1934

The 8.0 Mw Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.

The 1934 Nepal–India earthquake or 1934 Bihar–Nepal earthquake was one of the worst earthquakes in India's history. The towns of Munger and Muzaffarpur were completely destroyed. This 8.0 magnitude earthquake occurred on 15 January 1934 at around 2:13 pm IST and caused widespread damage in northern Bihar and in Nepal.


15/01/1919

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent communists in Germany, are clubbed and then shot to death by members of the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.

Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary. She was a leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and later co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League, which evolved into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). An influential member of the international socialist movement, she is remembered for her writings on imperialism and revolution, and as a champion of socialist democracy.


Great Molasses Flood: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 and injuring 150.

The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster, was a disaster that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.


15/01/1911

Palestinian Arabic-language Falastin newspaper founded.

Palestinian Arabic or simply Palestinian is a dialect continuum of mutually-intelligible varieties of Levantine Arabic spoken by Palestinians, indigenous to the Palestine region, which includes the states of Palestine and Israel. It is also spoken by the Palestinian diaspora.


15/01/1910

Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 99 m (325 ft).

Buffalo Bill Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Shoshone River in the U.S. state of Wyoming. Originally 325 feet (99 m), it was the tallest dam in the world when it opened in 1910; a 25-foot (7.6 m) extension was added in 1992 in one of the numerous changes and improvements to the structure and its support facilities, which include two full-time power generators and two seasonal operations added between 1920 and 1994, and a 2.8-mile (4.5 km) irrigation tunnel completed in 1939.


15/01/1908

The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African American college women.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (ΑΚΑ) is a historically African-American sorority. The sorority was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Alpha Kappa Alpha was incorporated in 1913. It is a member of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities often called the Divine Nine.


15/01/1892

James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

James Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball.


15/01/1889

The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in January 1892, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a component of the DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indices.


15/01/1876

The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, is published in Paarl.

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia, and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and also Argentina, where a group in Sarmiento speaks a Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony, where in the 17th and 18th centuries it gradually developed characteristics that distinguish it from Dutch.


15/01/1870

Thomas Nast publishes a political cartoon symbolizing the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion") for Harper's Weekly.

Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon".


15/01/1867

Forty people die when ice covering the boating lake at Regent's Park, London, collapses.

The Regent's Park skating disaster occurred on 15 January 1867 when 40 people died after the ice broke on the lake in London's Regent's Park, pitching about 200 people into icy water up to 12 ft (3.7 m) deep. Most were rescued by bystanders, but 40 people died either from hypothermia or by drowning. At the time, this catastrophe was considered the worst weather-related accident in British history. One consequence of the accident was that the lakebed was raised and the lake's maximum depth reduced to 4 ft (1.2 m), to help prevent future adult drownings.


15/01/1865

American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.


15/01/1822

Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by the Greek diaspora as independence day on 25 March.


15/01/1818

A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.

Sir David Brewster was a Scottish scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy. For this work, William Whewell dubbed him the "father of modern experimental optics" and "the Johannes Kepler of optics."


15/01/1815

War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.

The War of 1812 was a conflict initiated by the United States against the United Kingdom and its allies fought mainly in North America and at sea during the wider Napoleonic Wars. The United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Congress on 17 February 1815.


15/01/1782

Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris addresses the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.

Robert Morris Jr. was a British-born American merchant, investor, and politician, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature, the Second Continental Congress, and the United States Senate. He was one of only two individuals to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. From 1781 to 1784, he held the post of Superintendent of Finance of the United States, a role that earned him the title "Financier of the Revolution". Alongside Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is often regarded as a founder of the financial system of the United States.


15/01/1777

American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.


15/01/1759

The British Museum opens to the public.

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the world's first public national museum. In 2025, the museum received 6,440,120 visitors and was the second most visited attraction in the United Kingdom.


15/01/1582

Truce of Yam-Zapolsky: Russia cedes Livonia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Truce or Treaty of Yam-Zapolsky (Ям-Запольский) or Jam Zapolski, signed on 15 January 1582 between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia, was one of the treaties that ended the Livonian War. It followed the successful Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory, culminating in the siege of Pskov.


15/01/1559

Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England and Ireland in Westminster Abbey, London.

Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history and culture, gave name to the Elizabethan era.


15/01/1541

King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith".

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a legitimate son.


15/01/1535

King Henry VIII issues letters patent incorporating the title Supreme Head of the Church of England into his royal title.

Henry VIII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 22 April 1509, and King of Ireland from 18 June 1542, until his death in 1547.


15/01/0069

Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, beginning a reign of only three months.

AD 69 (LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the consulship of Galba and Vinius. The denomination AD 69 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.